I Put A Spell On You
by hayseed42
Summary: Beca Mitchell plans to rule the wizarding music scene, but her stupid Muggle dad is insisting that she go to college. Well, at least Barden University has a halfway decent Defense Against the Dark Arts program. It also has the world's most annoying-but-compelling redhead, and Beca's not entirely sure how she feels about that. Not so much an HP crossover as an HP infusion. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, back in 2009, I wrote a _Devil Wears Prada_ / _Harry Potter_ crossover-but-not-really where I applied HP rules to an American setting – the basic idea is that wizards are real, but the Harry Potter novels are censored for Muggles. So wizards are all irritatingly self-referential and all the trappings of modern culture are retained (like, wizards know about the Internet and stuff). I'm borrowing that universe here, because I was always fond of it. And girls with wands are aca-hot.

Summary: Beca Mitchell plans to rule the wizarding music scene, but her stupid Muggle dad is insisting that she go to college. Well, at least Barden University has a halfway decent Defense Against the Dark Arts program. It also has the world's most annoying-but-compelling redhead, and Beca's not entirely sure how she feels about that. Not so much an HP crossover as an HP _infusion_.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter One

"This is gonna be so cool, Becs," Jesse said excitedly, strumming an air guitar as he thrashed around in his seat like an epileptic.

"You're a weirdo, and I'm ashamed to be seen with you in any public setting," Beca replied in her flattest deadpan.

He grinned, completely unfazed by her harsh words. "Come on, Sparks, it's the first day of the rest of our lives! You can't tell me you're not a _little_ excited."

Frowning, she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not a little excited. My excitement exists purely on a negative scale."

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Look, Beca," he said, finally (finally!) serious, "I know your dad is basically acting like a dick—"

"Jesse!" his mother reprimanded from the front seat. "Watch your language!"

"Well, he _is_ ," Jesse protested. Beca permitted herself a small smile but remained silent. "Anyway, Sparks, I know you want to be out in L.A., tearing it up with, like, the Weird Sisters and Two Kneazles, but I'm just so glad that you're gonna be my college buddy."

With a groan, she buried her face in her hands. "Swanson, even when you're trying to be cool, you're the lamest dude in the effing _multiverse_! The Weird Sisters? They haven't had a hit in, like, twenty years."

"Neither has the Beastie Boys," he pointed out reasonably, "and they're still awesome, yeah?"

Beca looked up at him with a narrowed gaze. "You're skating on thin ice, but I'll allow it."

"That's my Sparks!" he cried, punching her shoulder for good measure. "We're totally going to rule the school, you know."

"Right," she said, unconvinced.

* * *

"So…" Beca said awkwardly, slinging her laptop bag over her shoulder. "Thanks for letting me ride with you guys. You know how my mom is about cars."

Jesse's dad offered her a fond smile. "Any time, Beca. Do you need help with your bags?"

She picked up her duffle and gave it a shake. "This is it. My grandma gave me a Bottomless Bag for graduation. It's handy, once you get the hang of the charm. I'm okay on my own."

"Well, have fun, dear," Jesse's mom told her, leaning down to give her a brief hug. "And keep our boy out of trouble, do you hear?"

Beca and Jesse exchanged grins. "I'll try, Mrs. Swanson, but he's kind of a selective listener, you know? I mean, the superglue thing last year—"

"Wasn't my fault," Jesse interrupted. "That was all you. Now the thing with the cat in our sophomore year…"

She nodded. "That was _totally_ you, dude."

His smile was beatific. "It earned me my first make-out session with the very, very sexy Paige Carlin. The detention was worth it. And the cat wasn't hurt at _all_."

Both of his parents looked uncomfortable enough that Beca decided now was the perfect time to take her leave. "Thanks again, Mr. and Mrs. Swanson," she said. "Drive safe."

* * *

"Baker Hall," she told the green-shirted girl, hating the nerves in her voice.

Why hadn't she stayed with Jesse's family? Jesse was in the same dorm, for Christ sake.

But Jesse deserved his own college experience, and it wasn't fair for Beca's pissy attitude to spoil it. He'd been a good sport this entire summer as she and her father had gone back and forth over the whole Barden Issue (it totally deserved capital letters, after all the shouting she'd done about it), and she wasn't going to keep dragging him down.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Baker, huh? Well, in that case, all you need is your official BU rape whistle. Baker girls get _red_ ones," she said with a wink and a smile, handing her a shiny silver whistle on a red lanyard.

The tingle of magic in Beca's hand the instant she grabbed it told her she was holding a Portkey and she returned the girl's smile. "Thanks," she said neutrally.

"Head to the left, please," the girl replied. "There's a wooded area for transportation. I hope you didn't eat a big lunch."

"What?" Beca asked, alarmed.

The girl's smile was wide and mischievous. "You'll see."

* * *

She'd never crossed wards by Portkey before and was sufficiently taken back by the experience that she dropped her duffel and staggered a few steps before she could recover her cool. But once she opened her eyes, she saw that she wasn't the only one. A couple of kids were sprawled on the floor, and one tall girl was standing red-cheeked beside a puddle of puke.

"Wow…" Beca muttered to herself.

One of the kids on the floor – a pudgy blonde – laughed at her. "That was _amazing,_ wasn't it?"

Beca blinked. "Not the word I would have chosen."

"It's a good omen. I totally saw it in my star chart last night," she continued, and Beca bit back a sigh. Divination wasn't… a _total_ waste of time. But it was close.

"Well…" Beca drawled. "Gotta find my room. See you around."

The blonde laughed again. "I'm enjoying the floor right now. I'm sure I'll see you at practice, DJ girl."

She froze and the blonde offered her a wink.

"You'll see," she said. "I'm always right. I'm the best Seer in Tasmania."

Fuck. Beca _hated_ prophecy.

* * *

"So…" Jesse drawled, looking around her tiny dorm room with – bless him – only limited skepticism.

"Jesse," Beca said brightly, gritting her teeth, "meet my roommate. Kimmy Jin, this is Jesse. He and I went to high school together."

Because he was a genuinely friendly person, despite being friends with someone like Beca, Jesse stepped toward Kimmy Jin with an open smile and an outstretched hand. "I'm pleased to—"

"Don't," Kimmy Jin snapped, giving him a dark glare.

He shot Beca a surprised look. "Wow, Sparks. You weren't kidding."

* * *

"This is _so_ thrilling," Jesse's roommate said, giving his cape a swirl for good measure. "I mean, look at us – we're mingling with actual _Muggles_!"

Beca raised an eyebrow at his antics. "I wouldn't say _mingling_ ," she told him dryly. "In fact, I'd say that people are staring at us."

And they were. It wasn't too bad yet, but the roommate's cape and suit (complete with embarrassing suspenders and spats – honest-to-God _spats_!) were attracting some curious looks. It was only going to get worse from here on out.

In the three hours since Jesse's parents had left, she'd managed to set up her laptop and mixing board (and stare forlornly in the bathroom mirror at what she was pretty sure was stress acne sprouting up on her chin) before Jesse interrupted her to meet her potentially-evil roommate, told her about some weird Activities Fair that he wasn't letting her skip, and dragged her away to meet his own roommate.

Who apparently had spent his entire childhood in a basement with no access to any information published after about 1937.

"It's the suit," the roommate said proudly. "Mother said I needed to wear my best one, so I could impress everyone my first day on campus. I knew people would like it."

Her mouth fell open and even easy-going Jesse smothered a laugh. "Dude, are you for _real_?" she asked, unable to help herself. "It's like you're an _actual_ character from Harry Potter. You're gonna get an Obs squad called on us."

She'd never had to deal with an Obliviate Squad – government wizards who showed up whenever there were displays of inappropriate magic in front of Muggles – but if this kid got through the next twenty-four hours without needing one, it would be a minor miracle.

The roommate's expression fell. "I – am I not? Oh, _no_ ," he cried, swirling his cape around so he could use it to cover his face in the most hilariously overdramatic gesture she'd ever seen. "Father _said_ this would happen!"

Jesse gave her a dirty look, and Beca felt immediately ashamed. "Look…" she said as gently as she could, reaching out to place a hesitant hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, okay. It's just… haven't you been around Muggles before?"

He uncovered his face, revealing eyes brimming with tears and Beca hated herself a little bit in that moment. "My parents don't believe in formal education," he said. "I've always had private tutors, as if Applebaums are too good for anything else." With a little sniffle, he swiped his cape across his nose. "I just… I'm so _tired_ of having to pretend that wizards are better than Muggles and we shouldn't mix with them. They're so mad that I wanted to come here to Barden, but I wanted to… it's so _stupid_."

"Can't disagree with that," Beca said, hoping it was enough.

Clapping a hearty hand on his shoulder, Jesse shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Benji. You'll get the hang of this stuff, although can I make a small suggestion?"

The roommate – _Benji_ , Beca told herself, _his name is Benji_ – gave him a watery smile. "Sure."

"Let's lose the cape, at least. It's totally cool in Baker, but maybe not out here, quite yet."

"But the cape is cool…"

The corner of Jesse's mouth twitched. "It is," he agreed, ignoring Beca's look of wide-eyed incredulity, "but it might be _too_ cool for the Activities Fair. Know what I mean?"

Benji appeared to be thinking about it. "Maybe you're right," he finally said. "I better keep my best stuff for later. That way, people will be even _more_ impressed."

* * *

"Oh, my _God_ , Chloe," Aubrey moaned. "I can't believe you!"

She dropped her handful of _Bellas_ flyers and rolled her eyes. "It's not like I can help it, Bree."

"This was a _brand-new_ phone. And look at it!"

Well, okay, so it was pretty bad. Aubrey's shiny new whatever-phone (Chloe paid no attention to Muggle brands) was currently a misshapen lump of silvery metal that emitted a few half-hearted sparks every now and again. "Aubrey, I'm sorry, okay?" she said in a rush. "But we totally have bigger problems to worry about. If we don't recruit some—"

"You owe me seven hundred bucks!" Aubrey shrieked in a shrill tone. Her eyes widened in rage, and Chloe was pretty sure she was about thirty seconds from puking.

Damage control, then.

"After the fair, we'll go to the store, and I'll—"

"You _can't_ go in an electronics store," Aubrey interrupted loudly. "You'll wreck everything there, you fr—"

"Hello," a male voice said in a desperate sort of way, cutting Aubrey's raving off rather effectively.

Which was so incredibly good that Chloe almost launched herself across the table in gratitude. She was pretty sure Aubrey was about to call her a freak, which would probably lead to the same hair-pulling fight that it had the last time she'd done it when they were nine and Chloe accidentally turned Aubrey's hair neon purple.

Well. Sort-of-accidentally.

The boy was continuing to talk. "So what are the Barden Bellas?" he asked good-naturedly. "Other than stunningly attractive, of course." He tipped Aubrey a wink and her lips curled in a sneer.

"We're busy," she told him dismissively. "Chloe—"

"Way to recruit new members," a sarcastic voice piped up. "Great sales pitch."

But Chloe wasn't listening to what the voice was saying. Instead, she heard the smoothness of the tone, the rich vowels. This girl, whoever she was, was a _singer_. She looked up from Aubrey's still-smoldering phone to take in the messy hair and dark makeup. Not a Bella in any way, but somehow, Chloe didn't care. Like she'd told Aubrey before she'd blown out the phone, they needed _singers_ if they wanted to win the ICCAs.

Before she could second-guess herself, her clipboard was in her hands, and she was shoving a flyer forward. "The Barden Bellas are the awesomest a capella group on campus," she said brightly.

"A capella? Like, no instruments?"

She nodded. "We make all the music with our _mouths_."

The boy snickered, but the girl (who also appeared to have multiple piercings in each ear, now that Chloe looked more closely at her) simply smiled. "Huh. I didn't know that was a thing."

There was a second boy, dressed for some odd reason in a suit that looked like one she'd seen in an antique shop before, and he suddenly perked up, staring across the quad. "Oh, my goodness, is that a _Quidditch_ game over there? But why are they on the ground? Don't their broomsticks fly?"

The exasperation on the girl's face was obvious. "For Christ sake, Benji," she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"And I don't see a Snitch anywhere," he continued. "Are they _Muggles_?Beca, Jesse, you didn't tell me that Muggles play Quidditch! Although they're not doing it very well. Maybe I should help them."

The girl – _Beca_? – offered Chloe and Aubrey a weak smile. "You know _Harry Potter_ fans," she said with a nervous laugh, scratching at a few spots on her chin that Chloe noticed were slowly turning a bright orange. "All that… um, role-playing and stuff."

In response, Chloe just held up Aubrey's trashed phone. "It's okay," she said. "I'm a role-player, too."

Beca's eyes rounded. "Jeez, you really did a number on that one, huh?"

"Yes, _she_ did," Aubrey said prissily, giving Chloe yet another nasty glare. "And some of us don't have fancy magic-y connections to get our electronics fixed when stupid _wizards_ blow them out."

The boy called Jesse leaned across the table and took the phone out of Chloe's hand. "Do you want me to fix it? I can totally fix it for you, like for reals."

After a pause, Aubrey just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It's not like I can take it back to the store to get it fixed. I don't think 'destruction by magic' is covered by the warranty."

Chloe hung her head. "Aubrey, I'm so—"

"You're being kind of a bitch," Beca interrupted, giving Aubrey a hard glare. "It's totally not her fault, dude. Do you, like, have something against magic?"

Which was a question that Chloe had often been afraid to ask Aubrey. It was delicate. She'd known Aubrey for as long as she could remember, and when Chloe had learned she was a witch, she'd been so afraid to tell Aubrey because she didn't want to lose her friend. Aubrey had appeared to take it in stride, even when Chloe went away to boarding school for her magical education, but every now and again…

"No," Aubrey said, matching Beca glare for glare. "I _do_ have something against little goth wannabe midgets that think they can judge me after meeting me for all of two minutes, though."

"Hey, hey," Jesse said reasonably. "Let's not do… whatever it is you're doing. Look, Beca, everything's chill. There's no Obs squad in sight, Benji knows he's not supposed to talk about real Quidditch with Muggles, and I'm going to fix a beautiful girl's phone for her so that she can go back to being good friends with the ginger witch who makes music with her mouth. See what an awesome summary that is? I should totally do movie trailers, right?"

Throughout Jesse's odd speech, Chloe watched Aubrey turn bright red and Beca turn ghost pale. "I am _so_ embarrassed that I know you right now," Beca gritted out. "What is _wrong_ with you, Jesse?"

Beside her, Aubrey shifted and Chloe could tell that she'd made her mind up about something. "You can bring my phone to auditions next month," Aubrey said in a tone brooking zero argument. "After wasting our time and potentially driving off other candidates like this, the least you can do is audition. All of you. I'll use my old phone while I wait."

Beca smirked and handed the flyer she'd been holding this whole time back. "Sorry," she said nonchalantly. "I don't sing. Catch you ladies later."

* * *

Chloe swallowed down her nerves and hesitantly knocked on the door, swirling the contents of the glass bottle in an old habit she thought she'd broken years ago.

It cracked open. "What?" a surly voice asked.

"Uh," she said, clearing her throat. "I'm looking for Beca. My friend is the RA for this hall, and she said—"

The door swung all the way open to reveal a glowering Asian girl. "Beca," she spat, "you have _company_."

There was a shuffle of paper and fabric and the girl from the Activities Fair popped into view, surprise written all over her face. "Um, wow," she said inelegantly.

"Hey," Chloe replied nervously. "I hope I'm not bothering you."

"You are," the Asian said flatly.

Beca rolled her eyes. "I'll catch up with you later, Kimmy Jin," she said in a chirpy voice that Chloe suspected was uncharacteristic in all ways before stepping out into the hallway and closing the door. "I really think I won the roommate lottery," she told Chloe with a smirk.

Shyly, Chloe returned the smirk with a smile. "She seems—"

"Scary," Beca said, shrugging. "I think she's planning to smother me in my sleep tonight. I plan on foiling her by staying up all night and playing really loud music. We're gonna be great friends."

"I can tell," Chloe replied with a small giggle. "Anyway, I hope you don't mind me stalking you a little."

"You met the weirdos I hang out with," Beca pointed out. "A stalker is a breath of fresh air compared to a pureblooded kid who actually doesn't know what light switches are for."

"I wanted to apologize about Aubrey, earlier," she said before she lost her nerve. "She's not usually like that, and I really do appreciate your friend offering to fix her phone. It's just… I've been so _worried_ about what's going to happen to the Bellas if we don't get some really awesome recruits. Normally I have a better grip on myself than that."

She couldn't read Beca's expression. It wasn't angry, but it wasn't what she'd call happy either. "It's okay. It's not like I've never been stressed before. We've all blown up lots of stuff, right?"

Her stomach promptly tied itself into knots. "I also wanted to give you this," she said, holding up the glass bottle.

"What is it?" Beca raised an eyebrow as she reached out to take it.

"It's… well, it doesn't have a name. It's a topical for those spots," Chloe said in a rush, horribly aware of how much she was overstepping the personal boundaries of a girl who was basically a stranger.

The expression remained absolutely unreadable.

"I don't know what they're called, but I get them too," she said. "Like, all the time, when I'm stressed. And if you put that," pointing at the bottle, "on them over night, they'll be gone in the morning. In fact…" Here, Chloe forced herself to laugh a little. "You should have seen me last night. I was practically covered in them. And they only get more orange if you don't do anything to get rid of them. In high school, I ended up in the infirmary for, like, two weeks because I looked like I'd been hit with a can of spray paint."

"I thought it was just a couple of zits," Beca admitted. "Thanks. Where do you get this stuff, then? 'Cause I'm guessing I'll need more, if they come from stress."

"I, um, I make it for myself," Chloe said quietly. "It's no big deal, really."

Beca's surprise was obvious. "That's totally a big deal, dude. I can't – thanks," she said again.

They stared at each other for a few moments, and Chloe idly wondered what it was about this girl that she found so… whatever. Like she was tongue-tied and excited all at the same time. She'd never had such an irrational urge to give someone a hug in her entire life. "What's your last name?" she heard herself asking.

Beca blinked slowly. "What?"

"I heard your friend call you Beca, but I don't know your last name. If we're going to be friends, I should know it."

She cracked a small smile. "I don't know. I don't even know your _first_ name."

Chloe's laugh was bright and happy. "My name is Chloe. Chloe Beale, Potions student and Barden Bella co-captain. And you are…?"

"Beca Mitchell, freshman nobody," she said with another one of those smirks. "Captain of absolutely nothing."

Her (top-of-the-line with magic-shielded electronics, available at the finest wizard retailers) cell suddenly rang, ringtone loud and harsh in the relatively quiet hallway. Apologetically, she dug it out of her pocket. "It's Aubrey," she said with a sigh. "It's probably important. She normally texts."

Beca flapped a hand. "It's cool. I promised Jesse and Benji I would go listen to them practice their audition routines. Your friend was apparently terrifyingly good at convincing them to audition for your musical mouth thing. I'll see you later, Chloe Beale."

She laughed. "Count on it, Beca Mitchell."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: None for this chapter, I don't think.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Two

There were only about thirty students in Introductory Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Beca wasn't too surprised. It wasn't like they could pack two hundred kids into a class where they would be routinely hexing each other. Her Transfiguration class earlier this morning had a lot more kids in it, but then again, it would.

Transfiguration was required for pretty much every major, but Defense wasn't mandatory like it was in high school, and she was pretty sure that apart from herself, only Auror-track kids were signed up for it.

Which was why she was stunned to see Chloe Beale slink into a free desk in the back of the room about ten minutes after lecture started. Chloe just didn't seem like the Auror type.

But, then again, Beca reminded herself fiercely, she absolutely didn't care.

Sure, Chloe was nice enough to bring her a potion to fix her weird orange acne (and it totally worked – this morning, her chin was spot-free), but Beca wasn't looking to pick up a collection of kooky magical friends on her college journey. She had exactly one goal: finish a DADA degree as quickly as possible so she could get out to L.A. and get to work. Just because Chloe was nice and friendly and had the bluest eyes she'd ever seen was no reason at all to care about which classes she took.

There was a lull in class and Beca was startled to realize that the professor was staring straight at her while her surrounding classmates laughed. "Um… yeah?" she said, wondering what exactly he'd said to her that she'd missed. The kids around her laughed harder.

His lips curled into a wry smile. "I was asking, young lady, if I was boring you."

Beca felt a blush spread across her cheeks. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I'm—"

"Let's start off with a shielding demonstration," he said dryly. "Since you're clearly uninterested in the theoretical details. _Stupefy!_ "

It was a cheap shot, but her teacher in high school had been an asshole of the eleventh order who liked to hex inattentive kids all the time, so Beca was relatively used to this kind of thing and flung herself out of her seat. " _Protego_ ," she said, brushing the hex aside with her bare hand and wondering if she was going to have to get her wand out. It was a good thing that they didn't have to wear robes to class, though, because she would almost certainly have gotten tangled up and fallen flat on her ass.

He flung a few more spells at her, and Beca managed to get her shield up for most of them, although she never quite managed to get her wand in her hand.

A final Stinging Hex came almost immediately on the heels of another Stunner, and she threw herself to the ground to get out of its way – the Stunner went over her head, but the Stinging Hex clipped her left shoulder. She picked herself up off the floor, trying to mask the pain.

An eyebrow went up. "Wandless?" he asked, lowering his own wand to give her a look that she couldn't quite decipher. "Surprisingly impressive, Miss..."

Beca matched his eyebrow and offered him a cocky grin. "Mitchell. My old teacher _hated_ foolish wand-waving. It's, like, his mantra."

Incredibly, the professor let out a loud laugh. "You must have gone to Black Hills," he said once Beca managed to pick her jaw up off the floor. "I haven't spoken with Dennis McMinamin in _years_. Is he still as horrible as he used to be?"

"He's pretty nasty," she admitted. "Not many of us stuck with him after tenth grade, but he can be cool if you can put up with the insults and curses."

She was aware that the entire class was staring at her as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second head, so she sat back down and tilted back in her chair, unable to help herself from noticing that Chloe Beale's eyes were wider than anyone else's. Beca couldn't help smiling to herself.

"I think that demonstration was sufficient, Miss Mitchell," the professor said after a long pause. "Everyone, pair off and alternate hex and shield. _Protego_ is preferred, of course, but an _Impedimenta_ or two never hurts, either. Keep the hexes minor, please."

Beca stayed in her seat as kids started getting up and making awkward conversations with each other. Generally, no one wanted to work with her in class (mostly because she glared at anyone that tried), and she usually ended up with the teacher. Actually, that was why she knew how to handle—

"Oh, my _gosh_ ," Chloe said excitedly, wrapping a hand around her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "You didn't tell me you were, like, a Defense prodigy."

"You didn't ask," she replied, amused. "Anyway, aren't you a Potions prodigy or something?"

"Potions is trial-and-error," she said with a dismissive shrug. "Anyone can do it if they bother to focus. But wandless shielding? That's aca- _awesome_ , Beca Mitchell."

"Excuse me?" she asked, not sure she'd heard what she thought she'd heard.

"Whatever," Chloe laughed. "Now you _have_ to be my partner. I need to know all of your secrets."

She raised an eyebrow and Chloe blushed.

"Your _Defense_ secrets," she corrected.

"Ladies," the professor cut in lazily. "I need to see more hexing, less chatting, please."

* * *

"By this point, I'm assuming that every student has a rudimentary understanding of Potions brewing," the professor said. "However, many of you come from schools that are positively medieval in their application, and it is my job to bring your understanding into the twenty-first century. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to your first lesson in practical potions chemistry."

As the professor started writing some incomprehensible formula on the board, Beca let her head drop to the desk with an audible thud.

* * *

"You weren't in calculus," Jesse said, dropping into the seat beside her at the lunch table.

"I don't need it for my Defense degree," Beca retorted, taking a huge bite of her sandwich. "My stupid dad signed me up for a bunch of Muggle classes because he's in deep denial about my willingness to tolerate his bullshit. I'm not going to any of them."

"But calculus is _fun_ ," he said. "If nothing else, you get to have class with _me_ , your bestest bud in all the land."

"You're seriously deranged."

"Beca—"

"No, Jesse," she cut him off. "I _know_ , okay? But I'm going to do my stupid Defense degree, you're going to conquer math or whatever shit it is that you want to do, and we're going to not talk about it any more, because if you keep pushing, I'm going to hex your tongue out of your head. Literally."

He blinked. "So, do you want to hear about the sweet jobs that I scored for us down at the radio station instead?"

She seriously dropped her sandwich on the ground, she was so surprised. "What?"

"Although I'm not sure," he said thoughtfully, tapping a long finger on his chin. "I might need a favor first."

" _Jesse_ …" she begged.

He gave her a sweet smile. "Becs, you know I love you, right? Even though you're a slacker determined to get as little out of our magical college experience as possible?"

She got it. "What do you want me to do, Swanson?"

"Fix this," he said, dropping the phone Chloe had fried three days ago on the table.

Leaning back, she folded her arms across her chest. "I thought you promised Blondie that _you'd_ fix it."

"But I _am_ ," he said with a smile she knew he thought was winning. "I'm fixing it by getting my bestie, who's awesome with electronics spells to do it. See?"

"And the job?"

"We're meeting some guy named Luke down at the station in…" He checked his watch. "Thirty minutes. Promise you'll fix the phone and I'll let you share the Portkey."

Beca scowled, scooping up the melted thing and dropping it in her pocket. "I really, really hate you sometimes."

He laughed brightly. "You totally love it, Becs."

* * *

"A sweet job, he said," she snarled, giving him a dark glare. "Working in the _music industry_."

"Beca, I'm—"

"Jesse, you got us jobs stacking fucking CD cases at a radio station earning exactly _zero_ dollars an hour!" Beca cried. "What the hell is wrong with you? I want to play music, not shelve it."

"He said we could get some airtime if we do a good job with this," Jesse said lamely. "Besides, isn't experience kind of all the same? Won't you have to be, like, a coffee monkey or something when you go out to L.A.?"

She rolled her eyes. He had a small (miniscule, practically irrelevant) point, but she'd be damned if she'd admit it. "At least I'll be a _paid_ coffee monkey," she grumbled.

* * *

"Do you think maybe Luke would let us play some of these records while we work?" she asked, holding up a couple of sleeves showing singers with teased-up 80's hair. "A lot of is Muggle stuff, and I've never heard it before. Not the old stuff, anyway."

"I thought you wanted to be a professional musician," Jesse teased, dropping a stack of cases on the desk and flapping his hand at them. One at a time, they rose in the air and obediently slid into place on the empty shelf. "Aren't you supposed to know all of this already?"

Beca rolled her eyes at him. "Show-off. Anyway, just because I don't know…" She read the name on a random album. "The Guess Who… wait? Why would a band call themselves that? Isn't that a total rip-off of the _actual_ Who?"

"Beca…" he drawled. "Control your ADD, dear."

"Fuck you," she said, but there wasn't any real anger behind it. She was too caught up in the music. "So… would you ask Luke about playing the records for me?"

He blinked. "Wait… you yell at me for getting you a job, insult my shelving methods, and then ask me to approach our asshole manager and ask a _favor_? Admit it, you dropped acid instead of eating breakfast this morning."

"Consider it further incentive to get me to fix Blondie's phone," she replied sweetly. "Chloe really did a number on it."

"Chloe?" Jesse asked blankly. "Who's Chloe?"

She shook her head. "At the fair. The redhead who melted the phone in the first place. Weren't you paying _any_ attention, Jesse?"

"I think you're underestimating how drop-dead gorgeous Aubrey the aca-blonde is," he said, tilting his eyes upward and wrapping his arms around himself in a clear imitation of a lovesick schoolgirl. "I wouldn't've noticed Harry Potter himself standing there."

"We are _so_ not friends anymore if you ever 'aca' _anything_ ever again. What does that even _mean_ , anyway?" Beca told him seriously. "And you and I both know Harry Potter isn't real." She thought about it. "Well, sort of. Whatever. Do we have a deal?"

He sighed. "All right, I'll—"

A familiar popping noise filled the room, signaling that someone had just Apparated in. Startled, Beca dropped her stack of records. "What the fuck?" she gasped.

Jesse's eyes were wide. "I have no idea."

"Oh, _Merlin_ ," they heard a voice say painfully.

Confused, Beca and Jesse exchanged a look. "Benji?" she asked in astonishment.

"I _think_ so," he replied. "Hey, Benji?" Jesse called loudly toward the source of the noise. "Is that you, man?"

"Yes," came the quiet squeak.

Carefully, Beca headed toward the corner, sliding her wand out of her pocket and motioning for Jesse to stay back. Who knew what was going on here? Beca was the better one to check it out, and both of them knew it. "Benji, are you okay?"

"No." It sounded like he might be crying.

She relaxed and beckoned to Jesse, who practically leapt forward in his haste to get to his roommate. "Benji," he sighed, taking in the sight. "Oh, _Benji_."

Tilting her head, she looked at the blood, the bruises, and mostly at the three fingers lying at Benji's feet. "What happened?" she asked softly, squatting down to put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

He sniffled. "I Splinched. It hurts."

Jesse's laugh was soft and non-judgmental. "I bet, dude. We need to get you to a mediwizard, like, yesterday."

Benji looked up at them with round eyes in a tear-stained face. "Oh, no! No, I can't! There's some dittany in my…"

"Benji," Beca said, shaking her head, "I hate to break it to you, but I have no idea how to reattach limbs, and I'm betting Jesse doesn't either."

"Nope," he agreed, popping the 'p' for emphasis. It was loud in the quiet room. "And if we don't get out of here soon, Luke's going to come in and bust a tit. Or make me go get him more food. He hasn't paid me back for lunch, either. Sucks, huh? It's a shit job that I have to _pay_ to work."

Beca almost tore into him for being such an asshole while Benji was lying there, bleeding and crying, but then she saw Benji's shy smile and realized that Jesse had been attempting to distract him. "Yeah," Benji agreed softly. "That does… _suck_."

"Do you think you can handle a Portkey?" Beca asked him, an idea forming in her mind as she spoke.

He coughed. "I… maybe?"

She whipped out her phone. "Great. Just let me text someone."

As she'd left her Defense class yesterday, Chloe all but snatched her phone out of her hand, programming herself into Beca's contacts over her (mostly weak) protests. "We're going to be fast friends," she'd said. "Do you have a Facebook, too? I just love Muggle technology."

Thank God for pushy redheads. Quickly, Beca pulled up Chloe's number.

 _weird request – this is beca btw – do you know anything about reattaching fingers?_

* * *

"And the reason we're not doing this at the campus infirmary is…?" Chloe asked leadingly.

Beca shrugged. "Benji had a freak-out when Jesse asked. I have no idea what the deal is. Maybe he'll talk to you. You _are_ kind of hard to say 'no' to, you know."

Chloe winked at her. "I'll take that as a compliment, Beca Mitchell."

"See, I should totally find that annoying, but I've just kind of… given up by this point," she said. "Turn that on Benji, and he'll sing like a canary." She tried a smile, but Chloe gave her a surprisingly sober look. "Chloe, are you okay doing this? Because I would understand if—"

"Beca," she interrupted with a fond smile. "It's really okay. I'm just glad I can help."

"Yeah, so how _did_ you learn to reattach limbs, anyway?"

"I'm a woman of multiple shades and dimensions," Chloe said, winking and giving her arm a pat. "You'll get used to it."

Yep. Impossible to say 'no.'

* * *

Even over here, in the doorway, Chloe could practically _smell_ the fear and pain radiating off of – what did Beca call him? – Benji. He was curled on his side in bed, and every now and again he let out a tiny whimper that broke her heart.

"Benji," she said as warmly as she could manage, crossing the room to sit at the very edge of his bed. "Benji, my name is Chloe."

He turned his face up toward her, and she could see a black eye beginning to form. "Hello," he said in a voice weak from too many tears. "It's… um… very nice to meet you."

She smiled at him, and when he sniffled in response, she almost started crying with him. "Benji, if it's okay with you, I'd like to take a look at your hand. May I?"

His eyes rolled back in his head. "I… I don't… no! My hand is fine," he cried. "I don't need a healer!"

"I'm one of Beca's friends," she said in her most soothing voice. "She and I are in Introductory Defense together. But I've taken some classes in first aid, and when she told me what happened, I thought maybe I could help. But only if you want me to, okay? You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

For a few long moments, he was quiet enough that she almost got up and left. But finally, he inclined his head in the tiniest of nods, holding his hand up stiffly.

Chloe sucked in a deep breath and tried to keep her expression neutral (knowing that she was failing miserably at it). She'd never seen the effects of a Splinching up close before, and it was far more gruesome than anything she'd ever had to deal with in class. To practice the reattachment spells, they'd used simple Severing Hexes or Detaching Jinxes, which were mild and – more to the point – caused the limb to simply separate from the body without leaving a wound.

Benji's poor fingers looked like they'd been sawed off with a knife. The edges were jagged and bloody, and even though they weren't actively bleeding, the flesh around the wounds was a dark color, bruised and damaged.

"Where are the… uh…" she muttered, turning her head to look at Benji's roommate, who was hovering around one of the desks in the room.

He shook his head. "I've got them here, on ice. I didn't know whether we were going to have to go to a Muggle ER or not, so I thought it was better to be careful."

Gulping, she nodded. "Bring them over here, please. And Benji?"

He gave her another one of those doe-eyed pain-filled looks that made her want to burst into tears. "Yes, Chloe?"

"I'm really sorry, but this is going to kind of hurt. Probably not as much as Splinching did, but enough."

"It's okay," he whispered.

Chloe hoped that he didn't notice her slightly trembling hands as she got out her wand and began the complicated series of taps that activated the first of the reattachment spells. It had been a year or so since her last healing class, and she was terrified she was going to screw up and make everything worse.

When she was a kid and had to go to the doctor, he or she always kept up a distracting chatter so that she never really noticed whatever uncomfortable thing it was they were doing, but one of the unfortunate drawbacks of magic was that she absolutely needed to concentrate a thousand percent on what she was doing, so poor Benji was left with nothing but his thoughts as she worked.

After a few soft words, the skin and muscle drew back enough to expose the bones on all of Benji's joints. She held one finger after another in its proper place, using the tingles of the healing magic to make sure that everything lined up as it should. More muttering sealed the bones in place, and a few more wand taps put the skin back in place and bound it together like new.

Gently, Chloe curled Benji's fingers into a loose fist. "Does that hurt?" she asked.

With an awed smile, he shook his head.

It took her a minute to recall the name of the other boy in the room. "Jesse," she said, hoping he hadn't noticed the pause. "There's dittany?"

He slid a desk drawer open and pulled out a wooden box. "Got it."

She carefully smeared it over Benji's knuckles, watching the last of the bruising and damage smooth itself away. "There," she said, pleased. "Good as new."

Holding up his hand, Benji gave it a hesitant flex. "That's… thank you!" he cried, launching forward to throw his arms around her in an exuberant embrace.

She laughed and patted his back. "Any time, Benji. Just… try not to Splinch again, okay?"

His eyes were dark and expressionless as he pulled away. "Did Beca tell you what happened?" he asked.

"She said she didn't know what happened," Chloe told him. "I thought maybe… it might help you feel better if you told someone about it. But I won't push."

Tilting his head, he studied her for a long moment. "Maybe some."

* * *

"Want to go get a pizza?" Beca asked as Chloe stepped out into the hallway, closing the door quietly in her wake.

She was certain her surprise showed in her expression, because Beca offered her a smile and a shrug.

"I figured I owe you for helping us out," she said by way of explanation. "Jesse texted me as you were finishing up, and he said he's going to stay and watch Benji, but he wanted me to make some sort of grand thankful gesture. I don't know how to do that, but I can buy you pizza instead."

Despite what Benji had just explained in a hoarse whisper, shedding not a few tears in the process, despite the general _shittiness_ of the human race, Chloe still managed a smile. "Sounds like a grand enough gesture to me," she said tiredly. "Although is it okay if we order in? I'm kind of beat after all that casting, and there's a Mellow Mushroom in town that's on the Floo network. I have their number."

"Sounds cool to me," Beca replied. "As long as you don't mind crashing in your room instead of mine. My roommate might be the next Dark Lord. Or just the personification of pure evil. I can't decide. She doesn't talk. At all. It's totally creepy."

As they headed toward Chloe's room, she placed their order over the phone. "Well…" Chloe said, opening her door and gesturing at the room. "This is me."

"You have a single?" Beca asked. "That's so cool. What's that big table for?"

"My advisor made the arrangements. I've got some potions experiments this semester that will need constant babysitting."

Beca quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't that, like, dangerous? What if there's an explosion or something?"

With a laugh, Chloe shook her head. "Everything's shielded. Besides, I haven't melted a cauldron since before I started high school."

"I think I hate you right now," Beca replied, wrinkling her nose. "I almost didn't graduate because I blew up a cauldron during final exams."

She absolutely couldn't help wrapping Beca up in a tight hug. "That's so cute!" she sighed.

"Dude, get _off_ me!" Beca cried, but she was laughing as she said it, so Chloe figured it was okay.

"Tell me you're taking Potions this semester," Chloe begged. "Promise me you'll let me help you!"

Rolling her eyes, Beca finally managed to squirm out of her arms. "Duh. Intro Potions is required for practically every major. But why do you want to help?"

She grinned. "That way I won't feel bad asking for advice in Defense."

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hey, it's the shower scene that we all knew was coming. I'm operating off the assumption that since they already know each other fairly well, it's differently upsetting for Beca.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Three

Sundays were Beca's favorite so far. Between Chloe, Jesse, Benji, and her own desperate desire to get the hell out of Barden as fast as possible, Beca had spent the last month obediently finishing up all of her schoolwork on Friday afternoons. Jesse had browbeat her into this plan so that he could drag her to stupid social functions and parties on Saturdays, claiming it was part of the required college experience. Which was largely stupid but she was willing to tolerate it, because Sundays were the real payoff. When everyone left her alone.

This particular one she'd spent trying to mash together a David Guetta song with a weird Muggle group she'd discovered by perusing the radio station CD's. Combining _Titanium_ with a – well, _any_ , really – B-52's song wasn't producing what Beca would normally call a meaningful, club-worthy result, but the challenge was well worth the time spent, and as Beca sauntered toward her Sunday-night shower, she found herself humming under her breath, singing the occasional lyric aloud.

As the water heated up, she started singing _Titanium_ 's chorus a bit louder. Really, all on its own, it was an awesome—

"You tiny little _liar_ ," Chloe said happily.

Like right next to her.

As in, Chloe was standing in her shower stall. Naked.

With a shout that was actually probably closer to a scream, Beca tried to grab the curtain and cover herself, but Chloe pushed herself even closer, eyes sparkling with glee. "You _said_ you couldn't sing," she exclaimed.

"Holy buggering _fuck_ , Chloe," Beca shrieked. "What the hell is _wrong_ with you?"

"The first day," she persisted. "At the Activities Fair. You told Aubrey and me that you couldn't sing. But you _can_. Oh, this is so great – you _have_ to audition for the Bellas."

"Oh, my God," she moaned, making one last lunge at the curtain and managing to knock over her entire basket of bath supplies. "Chloe, get _out_! I'm, like, too nude for this right now."

"Let me just show you." As she shoved the curtain well and truly out of Beca's reach and stepped _even closer_. " _Titanium_ , right? That song is totally my jam. My _lady_ jam."

Beca stilled and for almost an entire second, she forgot that she was naked in a shower with an insane also-naked redhead who was beaming at her like she'd just Transfigured an acorn into a live unicorn. "You know David Guetta?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Doesn't everyone who's even a little cool? Anyway, sing it for me."

Her eyes widened. "What? _No_."

"I'm not leaving until you sing," Chloe said stubbornly.

" _Accio_ towel," Beca said in a final, desperate effort to get less nude.

In response, Chloe waved her hands in a complicated motion and the towel headed for Beca's outstretched hand unraveled into a pile of string on the floor. "Seriously, Beca."

"I fucking hate you so much right now," she hissed. "I'm naked and you're naked, and we can't just start—"

When Chloe stamped her foot, causing her bare breasts to jiggle, Beca seriously thought she was going to pass out from the sheer effort of trying _not_ to stare. "Beca. _Sing_."

Eyes rolling toward the ceiling, Beca stumbled back through the first few words of the chorus, not entirely surprised when Chloe joined in, a third above.

What _did_ surprise her was the ripple of magic she felt as they continued to sing, passing the melody line back and forth as if they'd done it a thousand times before. By the time they'd sung six bars, Beca was fairly _buzzing_ with magic. She felt like if she so much as twitched her hands, something would catch fire.

She wondered if Chloe felt it too.

"Oh," Beca said softly as the chorus ended. "That was—"

"I _know_ , right?" Chloe said, leaning forward as if she were about to give her a hug.

Awkwardly, Beca turned away, pressing herself into the cold tiles. "Um…" she mumbled. "Shower."

With a start, Chloe appeared to recognize their surroundings and blushed. Beca tried (and entirely failed) not to notice that when Chloe blushed, it spread to her chest. "You're auditioning," she said firmly. "I'll conjure a poltergeist and set it on you if you try to get out of it, Beca Mitchell."

She sighed. "All right. But promise me one thing."

"Anything." Her smile was radiant.

" _Never_ tell me a song is your lady jam ever again," Beca said seriously. "Like, _ever_. Ever, ever, ever. Okay?"

Chloe's answering laugh echoed off the walls.

* * *

She had no towel. Well, she had a huge pile of string that in some technical sense could be called her towel, but it wasn't going to help her in any realistic way.

And Chloe was zero help. Apparently whatever nifty spell she knew to unravel things couldn't put them together. She offered to let Beca use her towel, but that seemed a bit too…

Anyway.

"I have a clean towel in my room," Chloe said, finally (finally!) slipping into her robe. "I can run get it if you want."

"Yes," Beca replied firmly. "I want."

She flipped the water on and started lathering up while she waited, wondering what sort of madness she'd signed up for by agreeing to audition for Chloe's stupid a capella group. As she thought, she found herself idly humming again.

"You have a lovely voice," a _male_ voice said abruptly.

This time, Beca's scream was purely instinctive. Her wandless Stunner, however, was less so, and she smiled a bit as she heard her attacker's body hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Beca, I – oh, no," Chloe said, walking back into the bathroom. "Tom?"

In a single motion, Beca slid the curtain back and grabbed the towel out of Chloe's slack grip, wrapping it tightly around herself and rejoicing in her lack of public nudity. "What the hell is up with people invading my shower? First you come in and get your lady jams all up in my business-"

Chloe giggled and Beca shot her a fierce glare.

"And now this asshole tries to come barging in, telling me I have a nice voice. Christ!"

"Actually, it's probably not his fault," Chloe said. "I bet those Kegger dicklicks set him up again."

Beca blinked and tried to pull her towel even tighter. "The who now?"

"Kappa Eta Gamma," Chloe explained with a small sigh. "They're the wizarding frat on campus. K.E.G. Hence, the Keggers. And one of their initiation things is to Confound a Muggle and set him or her loose in Baker Hall. Tom is their favorite victim. I have no idea why; he was in one of my chem classes a couple of years ago, and he seems like a normal enough guy. Although I'm sure he's had his memory wiped enough times now that it's starting to affect him."

Mouth open, Beca couldn't help but give the Stunned boy a sympathetic look. "That's horrible. How do those jerks not get in trouble for treating Muggles like that?"

Chloe shrugged. "I have no idea. Let me get dressed and then we'll figure out what to do about him. Okay?"

So much for her quiet, lonely Sundays.

* * *

"When the hell did you audition?" Jesse asked her with a drunken grin. "And how did I not know you could sing well enough to get into a legit music group?"

"Like I share everything with you, superfreak," Beca snarked back. "And I totally auditioned the same day you did. Didn't you see me?"

The smile dropped. "Honestly, Benji was supposed to go on after me, but he had some sort of weird freakout when he got on the stage, and I took him back to the dorm. You must have done your groove thang after that."

Beca shook her head. "You're way too nice to that kid, Jess. You're not his dad or anything. Also, you're not allowed to use slang ever again."

"Wow. The Girl Scouts called, and they want their compassion badge back," Jesse said, draining the rest of his plastic cup in a single go. "Benji's a good guy, Sparks. It's not his fault that his parents basically hid him under a rock for his entire childhood. Plus, he's almost as good at Arithmancy as me."

"Whatever," she said, flapping her hand.

He sighed. "You need beer, Mitchell. You're much nicer when you're drunk. I'll be right back."

The way he leapt over the concrete seats was almost terrifying – he couldn't quite move in a straight line, and Beca was seriously worried he was going to trip and bash his brains in. "Be careful!" she called.

"See, you _do_ care!" he shouted back.

"Oh, my _gosh_ , Beca, isn't this exciting?" a loud voice squealed in her ears as a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind.

She inhaled familiar perfume. "Oh, it's… something, all right," she sighed.

"Don't give me that," Chloe said, spinning her around to give her another gleeful hug. "I heard your audition. You're totally into this. I can _tell_. We're gonna be aca- _awesome_ together, Beca!"

"We got here, like, five minutes ago," Beca pointed out. "How are you so drunk so fast?"

Releasing her, Chloe flung her arms wide (almost smacking her face in the process). "If I'm drunk, it's only on the wine of success. I'm just so _happy_!"

"Yeah, I got that," she said, not really sure how to proceed from this point.

Fortunately, she was rescued from having to come up with some sort of placating response by the arrival of Jesse, beer-less and frantic. She raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you were bringing me a drink?" she said leadingly.

"Sparks, you gotta hook me up with Aubrey's phone. I saw her over there, and it's totally time to make my move," he said in a rush.

Chloe shook her head at the pair of them. "Congrats on getting in to the Trebles, Jesse," she said sweetly.

"Yeah, great, thanks. Come _on_ , Becs. My future is absolutely _hinging_ on this moment, where I impress the blonde of my dreams with my magical awesomeness."

"He doesn't know about the oath, does he?" Chloe asked her, voice rich with humor.

"He does not," Beca confirmed dryly. "I hate to break it to you, boy wonder, but Aubrey's not going to go for you now."

"What?" he asked, breathless.

"On pain of having her vocal cords ripped out by wolves, dude," she said. "It's, like, required Bella behavior to hate the Trebles."

"Well…" Chloe said in a thoughtful way. "Not hate, exactly. But not sleep with them or otherwise be attracted to them. Aubrey goes the extra mile and hates them, but that's mostly because Bumper Allen is the douchiest of all the douche-nozzles. That's what you get when you let a Kegger join an a capella group."

Beca and Jesse exchanged a baffled look. "I only got about half of that," Beca admitted.

"What she said," Jesse added. "Although I'm betting that the half I got wasn't the half you got, Sparks. I've met Bumper, obviously. And he _is_ an asshole."

"And he's part of that wizarding frat you told me about before?" Beca asked.

Chloe nodded. "He's kind of made it a personal mission to bug the shit out of Aubrey personally for the last two years. I think it's as much because she's a Muggle who hangs out with wizards as it is a Bellas thing. She's pretty rabid about hating Trebles these days because of it, though, so I would steer clear if I were you, Jesse."

Turning his head to stare at the back of Aubrey's clearly visible head, he let out a deep sigh. "No one said love would be easy."

* * *

"I just wanted to say," the blonde girl who called herself Fat Amy said loudly, slinging an arm around Chloe's neck and breathing what smelled like pure vodka in her face, "how great it is to be here. I mean, I knew it would happen and everything, but you guys are cool. Even for skinny bitches."

"Um… thanks?" Chloe wasn't sure how to respond. Aubrey seemed to genuinely like Fat Amy and had spent the better part of an hour laughing with her while watching the crowd, but Chloe was feeling a little out of her depth.

"Say, when were you born?" Amy asked with another alcoholic giggle. "I like doing full workups on all of my friends. Of course, it works best when you know the birth time _and_ the conception time, but when I ask that over here, people keep giving me weird looks."

She bit her lip and said nothing. However, she did notice Beca loitering several feet in front of them, clearly trying to inch her way away from the party. Beca caught her eye and smirked. In reply, Chloe just put on her best panic face and mouthed, _help me_.

Beca stayed put, but something about their exchange must have caught Amy's attention, because she released Chloe with a joyful cheer. "Hey!" she shouted. "It's my favorite tiny DJ! Didn't I tell you? Wasn't I right?"

"Have we met?" Beca asked, wandering closer. "I mean, other than tonight after they pulled those smelly bags off our heads?" Chloe glared at her, but Beca looked unapologetic. "Seriously, do you guys wash them? Because you _should_."

"First day," Amy said, punching her shoulder hard enough that Beca staggered backward a step or two. "Don't you remember? Those cool Portkey trips with our rape whistles? I knew as soon as I saw you that we would be Bellas together." Her eyes widened comically. "Maybe I'm not just the best Seer in Tasmania – maybe I'm the best in America, too!"

Chloe blinked, taking a closer look at Fat Amy and trying to see more than the girl who did a full-on demonstration of 'mermaid dancing' for a pair of absolute strangers. "You're a Baker girl?" she asked carefully.

"Well, at first I wasn't going to apply to college, because I knew it would just be a big fuss when the Divination profs learned just who they were dealing with, but last Christmas, I had a vision, so here I am," Amy said gleefully. "Lucky you!"

"Yep," Beca said, not sounding as sarcastic as usual. "Lucky us. Hey, your visions are awfully specific. Most of the kids I knew in high school who were into Divination always predicted safe stuff, like 'this day will bring something unexpected,' and shit like that."

Amy tipped her a wink. "I'm the best, baby," she said, throwing in a small kissing noise for good measure. "As you'll see."

"I don't know much about Divination," Chloe admitted, "but I'm glad you're in the Bellas, Fat Amy." If she hesitated a little on the 'Fat,' no one called her on it. "This is going to be a great year."

Fat Amy looked back and forth between Chloe and Beca. "Oh, you precious little ginger, you have _no_ idea," she said, laughing for what seemed to Chloe to be no good reason.

"Do you…?" she asked Beca leadingly.

Beca shook her head. "No clue, dude. Just roll with it."

* * *

"So… what do you think?" Chloe asked Aubrey, concentrating more on walking a straight line than on Aubrey's actual answer.

"Don't you want to go back to your dorm?" Aubrey replied with a raised eyebrow. "I don't want you to have to pretend or anything. You don't have to crash at my place if you don't want to."

This was the part of their friendship that Chloe found upsetting. The way that her magic was a barrier between them. Some days they were better at pretending it wasn't, but it was always _there_.

She stopped walking and grabbed Aubrey's arm. "Bree, I _never_ have to pretend around you. Please don't say things like that."

"You spent all night hanging out with the little goth witch and her Treble boyfriend," Aubrey pointed out. "It sends mixed signals, Chlo."

Okay, so maybe the last beer (or two, if she was honest with herself) was a bad idea. The conversation she needed to have with Aubrey right now required some serious sobriety that Chloe was currently lacking, and her supply of Sober-Up Potion was in her room. "Jesse isn't Beca's boyfriend," is what she heard herself stupidly saying.

Groaning, Chloe covered her face with her hands. "Bree, I—"

Aubrey's hands were warm and gentle on her back. "You drink too much at parties, Chloe," was all she said. "Come on. You can sleep on my couch tonight."

She moaned. "Your couch is too uncomfortable to sleep on. Can't we just-"

"You aren't sleeping in my bed. Not after what happened last time, Chloe Beale."

Offering Aubrey her best drunken grin, she grabbed her hand and gave it a gleeful tug. "It all evens out, Bree. I throw up in your bed, you puke on a row of judges at ICCAs. See? All balanced."

"That's not… I don't have anything to say to that."

"That's because you know I'm right," she said cheerfully. "And I'm right about Beca and the Bellas, too. You'll see."

"Boy, you really _did_ drink too much, didn't you?"

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: In case it's unclear, I'm operating off the assumption that we all know the plot of the film fairly thoroughly and am therefore not rehashing every single scene. I'm highlighting the differences and 'behind the scenes' details.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Four

"You're moving your wand wrong."

Chloe huffed, but it made her look all of ten years old, so Beca found herself biting back a smile. "I am _not_ ," Chloe said petulantly.

Slowly, Beca repeated her wand motion, punctuating each stage of the spell with a word. "Yes. You. Are. See, here? Wrist goes _counter_ -clockwise. You're doing it backward."

With an exaggerated eyeroll, Chloe mimicked Beca's motion. "Am I doing it right this time?"

"Well, you have to _say_ the spell, too, dude."

Chloe's hand tightened visibly around her wand. "Beca, you seriously need to shut up. Like right _now_."

"Doing okay, ladies?" the professor asked nonchalantly as he walked by, clearly expecting to hear nothing but positives.

So Beca didn't point out Chloe's obvious distress and instead offered him a nod. "Doin' good, Professor Palmer. Aren't we, Chloe?"

"Eat shit and die," Chloe growled.

Beca laughed. "Happy thoughts, remember?"

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe closed her eyes, swirled her wand in an approximation of the correct motion, and cried, " _Expecto Patronum!_ "

A little puff of white smoke shot out of the end of her wand.

She opened her eyes and gave Beca an apprehensive look. "Well?"

"You got some smoke," she replied, pointing at the mist still swirling lightly through the air. "That's better than the last ten times when absolutely nothing happened, right?"

Chloe let out a defeated sigh. "Do you mind showing me just _one_ more time?"

"That's cool," Beca said casually, bringing her wand up to attention. She closed her eyes and concentrated with all of her might on the happy feeling she'd gotten the first time she successfully cast this same spell. " _Expecto Patronum_ ," she said, giving her wand a twirl.

On opening her eyes, she smiled a bit at the silvery Labrador retriever rolling around on the floor.

"You know," Chloe said thoughtfully, "I wouldn't have pegged you for a dog Patronus if you gave me a million guesses."

She shrugged. "It changes. You _do_ know that all of that 'Patronus matching the Animagus or true love' thing in the Potter books is horseshit, right?"

"Well…"

"It's not a spell I cast all that often," Beca admitted, "but I've gotten at least three different animals myself. I think it depends on the memory you use, really. My high school teacher said that people tend to use the same memory, and that's why they think their Patronus can't change. He said he knew one lady who normally got a lioness Patronus, but when she became an Animagus, she was a bird. So who the hell knows?"

"It's not looking like I'll ever get to see even _one_ of mine," Chloe said gloomily.

"Not with that attitude," she replied. "Maybe it's just… like, you're generally kind of happy all the time, so your memory has to be, I don't know, super-concentrated happy or something. Since I'm always mostly miserable, it's easier for me to come up with enough of a… happiness differential to get it to work."

Chloe stared at her. "Happiness _differential_?"

"Shut up," Beca said, feeling her cheeks redden. "You know what I mean. Anyway. Want to try again?"

"Honestly, no," she admitted. "Nothing may be happening, but I'm still getting tired. Want to go grab lunch before we head to Bella rehearsal?"

Beca glanced at her watch. "Yeah, I guess. Class ended ten minutes ago. Where do you want to go?"

As they headed toward the student center, Beca couldn't help studying Chloe. In rehearsals, she was always good cop to Aubrey's bad cop, cheerful and enthusiastic about leading everyone through the (painful, hideously outdated) choreography. Even during Aubrey's infamous cardio sessions, Chloe was nothing but helpful and kind to the whole room.

And the few times they'd hung out in Baker, Jesse browbeating Beca into watching a movie with him while Benji – who clearly had never seen a television before – asked a million questions, Beca had invited Chloe out of pure self-defense. And Chloe there was much like Chloe in rehearsal: compassionate toward poor, clueless Benji, respectful of Jesse's stupid obsession with boring, repetitive rom coms, and teasing Beca out of whatever hateful funk she'd worked herself into.

To see Chloe now, with her head down and frustration written all over her face was practically more than Beca could stand. Chloe was supposed to be, like, happy _all the time_ (although a part of Beca knew that wasn't exactly possible but still). Her eyes were supposed to sparkle and remind Beca of going to the beach and watching the ocean waves. Right now, they were flat and lifeless.

On an impulse she didn't question, Beca caught Chloe's hand in her own and gave her a sly smile. "Hey, I just had a thought," she said, shooting for casual but actually sounding incredibly nervous.

Chloe didn't raise her head, but she held Beca's hand tightly. "Yeah?"

"We should set aside a time, like, a couple of times a week, to go through Defense spells." Chloe's expression didn't change, but Beca pressed on. "I don't mean the stuff we do in class. I just… Professor Palmer is going in the same order my high school teacher did our senior year in Advanced class, so I kind of know what's coming next. We could go over it together before Palmer makes us do it in class. I bet that would help, because maybe you'd be less nervous the second time around and stuff."

Stopping dead in the middle of the quad (and almost yanking Beca's arm out of its socket in the process), Chloe gave her an amazed look, complete with rounded eyes and open mouth. "You think so? You really think I can do it?"

Beca nodded. "Sure. Why not?"

With a squeal that Beca was pretty sure ruptured one of her eardrums, Chloe threw her arms around her and squeezed.

Okay, so Chloe had given her hugs before. It was apparently one of her _things_. But this was the first time she'd pressed her entire length against Beca's body. She was awkwardly aware of Chloe's breasts pushing into hers and tried not to blush.

Besides, Chloe smelled, like, really good. Sighing, Beca gave in to the embrace and wrapped her arms around Chloe's back.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Chloe chanted.

"It's no big deal," Beca heard herself mumble through a mouthful of red hair.

"I'll think of a way to pay you back, Beca. I promise!"

* * *

"Just don't make me sit through _Star Wars_ again, Jesse, or I swear to God I"ll—"

He rolled his eyes. "Beca, you wound me to the core. I do more than watch movies."

"I'm not working on calculus with you either," she said quickly.

"Yeah, I meant to ask about that," he replied. "I thought you said you were dropping all of your Muggle classes, so why did you bother buying a calc book?"

She groaned. "When I went to the registrar, they said I _had_ to take at least one because otherwise I couldn't stay legally enrolled at Barden. Calculus seemed like the least horrible option. That philosophy class was seriously stupid, and at least math has a chance of being useful."

"Well, only if you show up," Jesse pointed out.

"The professor posts all of the homework and class notes online," she retorted. "You said he doesn't take roll. As long as I show up for the tests, it's not a big deal."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Sparks, but… um… do you actually know _how_ to do calculus?" he asked skeptically.

Fixing him with her best imitation of Kimmy Jin's evil eye, Beca simply waited for him to throw his hands up in defeat.

"Fine!" he cried. "See if I care when you come crying to me two days before the test. And just so you know, I asked you to come over because I wanted to talk to you about the Bellas."

"The Bellas?" she echoed in disbelief.

He grinned. "I have a plan, but I need to know where and when you guys rehearse."

"Jesse…" Beca began, not quite sure how she was going to proceed. "The Trebles and the Bellas…"

"Oh, don't worry about that," he said dismissively. "Singing covers with other nerds is fun and all, but Bumper is an ass and his vendetta against the Bellas is beyond boring. Especially because it's interfering with all of my plans."

"Your plans?" she asked with an amused smirk. "You have _plans_?"

"I don't know if you noticed this about me, Sparks," he said, a dramatic hand over his heart, "but I am what is traditionally known as a _romantic_."

"You've forced me to watch _The Breakfast Club_ twice a year since we were fourteen," she said, voice heavy with sarcasm. "I might have guessed."

"Not only that, but I am a romantic who hasn't had a romance. Not a real one, anyway."

She shook her head. "Last year, you totally did that surprise roses-and-picnic thing for Lena Talbot. I thought she made out with you."

"And she did," he confirmed with a nod. "A magical time was had by all that day. But that's not the point. The point, Sparks, is that I am in _true_ love this time, and it's going to take more than juice pouches and flowers to win my aca-mazing lady over."

It clicked. "Are you still hung up on _Aubrey_?" she asked incredulously. "Chloe's inexplicable best friend? Nazi captain of the Bellas? Stick so far up her—"

"Stop insulting my future wife," he said, sticking his tongue out at her.

"Are you on _peyote_?" she asked. "Like, for real? Dude, she _hates_ you. I gave her the phone at the first rehearsal and she didn't even say thanks."

Jesse folded his arms over his chest. "She doesn't know me. She can't hate me if she doesn't know me."

"She hates the Trebles. Which includes you." She held up a hand to stop his protest before it even started. "Whether you think it does or not doesn't matter, Jesse, because _she_ does. There's absolutely no way this will end well."

"Fortunately, that's between Aubrey and me," Jesse retorted smugly. "Your opinion doesn't matter. And if you aren't going to help me, you can just leave. Benji and I can take care of it on our own."

She shot him a disbelieving look. "Benji? Your amazing, fail-proof plan includes _Benji_?" With a laugh, Beca yanked the door open and stalked out of his room. "Good luck, dude," she tossed over her shoulder. "You're going to _need_ it."

* * *

"I don't need your help _all_ the time, Chloe," Beca said as they left practice, headed for Baker Hall. "I know the choreography. I promise."

"You go through it like a robot," she protested good-naturedly, not wanting to tell Beca that she also just had the occasional moment where she had to give in to her urge to _touch_.

Which she had started to question, until she realized that whenever Beca was explaining wand techniques for Defense class, she had no qualms putting her hands all over Chloe. Whatever weird thing was between them, Beca clearly felt it too, so Chloe dismissed her concern.

"That's because it's robot- _tic_ ," she said irritably. "I swear, Chloe, is Aubrey, like, stuck in an OCD feedback loop or something? Why can't she see that our routine is terrible?"

"It's not all bad…" Chloe said in a hesitant way. "My solos happen to be awesome, I'll have you know." Although that last high note wasn't going so well. She knew it and Beca probably knew it, too, but now wasn't the time to bring it up. Not when she was trying to tease Beca out of a bitch-fest.

"And the costumes…" she continued, not taking the bait. "Chloe, I can _not_ carry off a pencil skirt. Most of us can't. Dressing us up in French twists and skinny lady-suits just offsets you and Aubrey versus the _rest_ of us. It may be who the Bellas were before, but Aubrey needs to realize it's not who the Bellas are _now_."

She sighed. "Just… let's get through semi-finals, okay? Maybe if we do well at semis, Aubrey will get past the whole… thing from last year, and she'll be more open to suggestions."

With a loud snort, Beca crossed her arms over her chest. "She'll probably just assume it means her stupid way _works_ and stick to it even harder." After a moment, she blew out a sigh and gave Chloe a wicked smirk. "Know what? We should ask Fat Amy. I bet she knows exactly how semi-finals will go."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Beca. Fat Amy is _not_ a magic eight ball. I know next to nothing about Divination, and even _I_ know it doesn't work that way."

"Speaking of things you don't know about," Beca said, still smirking.

"Hey!"

"Are we on for Defense practice tonight? I think we're going to start non-verbal jinxes tomorrow. Want to get a head start?" She picked nonchalantly at a chip in her nail polish.

Ah. Time for her to make her move. "I actually have a different idea," Chloe said, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt about this.

Beca quirked an eyebrow but remained silent in a clear invitation to continue.

"Okay, so don't get mad," she said in a rush. "I wasn't stalking you on _purpose_ this time, but—"

"But…?" Beca sounded curious, but not angry. Yet.

"I'm Professor Tyson's TA," she said.

"Tyson? As in my Potions professor?"

Chloe nodded. "Well, I'm sort of the TA," she explained. "For Tyson, all she needs me to do is set out ingredients for each lesson. I'm _actually_ the official TA for my advisor's Advanced Potions class. That's a lot more work, because I have to do all his grading."

"Okay…" Still curious. Good.

"Professor Tyson's been complaining about cauldrons," Chloe said, watching all the blood drain out of Beca's face.

She stopped walking. "She _told_ you about the cauldrons?" she asked miserably.

"Oh, no!" Chloe said, immediately wrapping Beca up in another one of those hugs that she didn't seem to be able to help herself from initiating. "She never told me anything specifically, but she said that one of her students has melted almost a dozen cauldrons in the last six weeks, and she couldn't believe that Dr. Palmer said it was one of his best students, and I put two and two together."

"Chloe, I can't breathe," Beca said quietly.

She blushed and let her go. "I'm sorry, Beca. I just…"

"It's okay." Coughing, Beca stared at her feet. "So now you know that I'm a Potions fuck-up, huh?"

"Well, I'm a Defense fuck-up," she said lightly. "Fuck-ups should stick together."

"Chloe…" Beca gave her a look she couldn't immediately decipher. "Chloe, you're not a Defense fuck-up. You know all the spells, and you know all of the _theory_. If Professor Palmer ever decides to give written tests instead of practicals, you'll ace everything. In Potions, it wouldn't matter if the professor gave me a year, a million cauldrons, and an open damn textbook. I'd still fail. Like I told you before, I almost didn't _graduate_ because I suck so hard at Potions."

Taking Beca's hand, she gave it a tug until she started walking again. "It's going to be okay, Beca, because this time, you've got _me_ to get you through it. I wasn't kidding before when I asked you to let me help you with Potions. I want to. Because you can do it. I know you can."

Beca sighed. "Defense is so much _easier_ , you know?"

 _Not for me_ , Chloe thought but didn't say.

"It's why I picked Defense for a major. I can half-ass the classes and still get through okay. But in Potions? I can't concentrate, because I just… I don't care about school," she admitted, letting out another despondent sigh.

Chloe couldn't help pushing. "Then why are you here?" she asked gently.

"My stupid dad won't get off my back about having a degree," she said. "It's no big secret or anything. After I finished high school, I wanted to go out to L.A. and get a job in a music studio, start learning the industry. But Dad is a professor here, and he knows about the wizarding degree programs, and he just kept pushing and pushing, and it was just easier to give in." Her laugh was bitter. "L.A. will still be around in four years, right?"

"You want to be a professional musician?" Chloe was breathless at the thought.

"Sort of…" Beca hedged. "Look, maybe it'll be easier to show you."

* * *

"You're the one that fixed Aubrey's phone," Chloe said as she took in the electronic set-up on Beca's desk.

Beca laughed. "Totally not the response I was expecting. What makes you say that?"

Carefully, she traced her fingers across one of the boards, full of switches and dials that she vaguely recognized from movies and TV shows about recording studios. "You had to have set up these by yourself. Which means you know electronics spells."

"I went ahead and rigged a shield for it, too," Beca offered. "Feel free to go as haywire around Aubrey as you want. Her phone should be fine. I assume no responsibility for Aubrey herself, though."

She didn't want to laugh at Aubrey's expense, but she couldn't hold back a bright smile. "I know Aubrey didn't say it, but thanks for fixing it, Beca. I know she appreciates it."

"Does she actually think Jesse fixed it?" Beca asked slyly. "He's working on some sort of crazy plan to win her over, you know. Boy's got it bad. Even Benji's involved at this point."

"How's Benji's hand doing, by the way?" she asked, concern sparking at the mention of his name. "I don't see him much."

Shrugging, Beca sat at her computer and started clicking on… things. "Seems to be fine," she replied off-handedly. "He never did tell us what happened to cause it, though. Did he tell you anything that night?"

She found herself strangely hesitant to say. "I don't… Beca, it's not really my story to tell," she told her. "He didn't tell me everything, but he told me enough to remind me that people pretty much suck. Magical _and_ Muggle." Beca didn't immediately reply, and after a few beats of silence, Chloe cleared her throat. "Now, tell me all about this stuff. I know it's related to music, but that's about it."

"What do you know about the wizarding music industry?" Beca asked.

She snorted. " _What_ wizarding music industry?"

Spinning around in her chair, Beca gave her a wide smile – it was the happiest expression Chloe had ever seen on her face. "I _know_ , right? I mean, there's old dinosaurs like the Weird Sisters, and there are a couple of acts touring around if you know where to look. Jesse loves Two Kneazles, and everyone's heard of Animagus…"

Chloe hadn't but she wasn't about to interrupt Beca when she was on a roll like this.

"I've never understood why wizards don't do the arts," Beca said. "I mean, did your high school even have a fucking marching band?"

Soberly, she shook her head.

"No band, no chorus, nothing!" She threw her hands up for emphasis. "We had a dozen varsity sports, including competitive Quidditch, but no music program. Painting is portrait-only, and have you read a single wizarding novel?" She didn't wait for a response. "Neither have I. Newsflash, Chloe: there _aren't_ any!"

She'd never honestly thought about it. Possibly, she'd just assumed that the wizarding art world wasn't open to Muggleborns.

Although probably not, in retrospect. All that pureblood-Mudblood bullshit might still be a big deal in places like England, but she'd never run across a single American wizard that gave much of a damn one way or another.

Honestly, Chloe had been so dazzled by the reality of magic that she'd never thought to ask whether wizards wrote books or composed symphonies.

"Except…" Beca said, apparently not noticing Chloe's attention wandering, "there _are_."

She blinked. "Are what?"

"Wizarding books. Wizarding art. Wizarding _music_. It's just not exclusive."

Sitting on Beca's bed so she could properly lean over to look at her computer screen. "Explain, please," she said sweetly.

"Okay… listen to this." She opened a sound file, and a reedy recording of Mick Jagger telling Ruby Tuesday he was going to miss her started to play.

"I thought you didn't like the classics," Chloe teased.

"Ace of Base _isn't_ classic," Beca replied darkly.

"Beca, why are you playing the Rolling Stones while explaining wizarding music to me?" she asked playfully.

In response, Beca just stopped the music and opened another file. "Listen to this one."

She grinned. " _Comfortably Numb_. I love this song. Have you heard the cover by that dance group? I can't remember the name, but I've never seen the frontman in anything but a leotard."

"Chloe," Beca said in a mock-stern voice. " _Focus_."

Straightening up, she folded her hands on her knees. "Yes, ma'am," she said. "Focused and ready to learn, Miss Mitchell."

"Don't listen to the difference in the voices and the music," Beca told her seriously. "Try and _feel_ the difference."

This time, Beca did something with the program open in her desktop, and _Ruby Tuesday_ and _Comfortably Numb_ were playing at the same time. It should have sounded terrible, but somehow, it highlighted what Beca was trying to explain.

Chloe closed her eyes and focused with every bit of herself. She blocked out the world, except for those two songs.

It was only for a split second, but she _heard_ it.

"I got it!" she squealed. "I can't put it into words at all, but I felt it, Beca! Pink Floyd is a wizarding group, aren't they?"

Letting out a breath, she slumped in her chair. "Thank God you can hear it, too. Half the time, I'm terrified that I've tricked myself into thinking I can hear a difference. But, yeah, I'm pretty sure Pink Floyd is wizarding and the Rolling Stones are Muggle. There's just… something about the flow. I don't know what it is, but it's there. I don't know if Muggles can hear it or not, but we can."

"So what are you going to do with it?" Chloe asked, wondering when she'd stop being amazed by Beca Mitchell.

"I'm not sure," she said, shaking her head. "But I _know_ there's a market for it. Wizards are too defined by their magic to not want to give it a voice, so I just feel like wizarding artists, even if they're working in the Muggle industry, need a place where they can put their magic into music. I'm not sure how to make it work, but I know I'll have to start in the regular music industry, meet artists, that kind of thing."

"No wonder you didn't want to go to college," she breathed.

"Yeah, there's no real degree program for 'inventing an industry from scratch,'" Beca said. "But at least with Defense, I get a lot of work with wandless magic, which is useful for working the boards."

She raised an eyebrow, and Beca let loose another one of those wide smiles.

"Oh, watch and be impressed, lady," she said cockily. As Beca's hands twirled in an oddly elegant motion, about a dozen switches on one of her mixing boards flipped back and forth.

Chloe felt her mouth fall open.

"It's more about letting the music find where it wants to be," she said, sounding surprisingly modest. "If it was just about turning the switch, I would do it by hand, but magic makes it sound better. I've been learning how to work the boards by doing DJ mash-ups."

"You _have_ to let me hear them," she said excitedly, leaning forward so she could rest her chin on Beca's shoulder. "And tell me about all of the wizarding bands you know about. I bet every single one of my lady jams is by a wizarding band."

Beca's head swiveled around so quickly that her lips brushed against Chloe's cheek as she spoke. "Hey, I thought we had a rule about you never saying that again."

Chloe just giggled. "All you said was that I couldn't tell you _which_ songs they were. The phrase _lady jam_ was never made off limits."

"I think a rule amendment is in order, then," Beca said quickly.

Before sitting up completely, Chloe gave her arm a little pat. "You have no sense of humor, Beca."

"There's nothing wrong with my sense of humor and everything wrong with your sense of _boundaries_ , Chloe."

"Just hush and let me listen to your amazing, world-changing wizarding mash-ups."

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

A/N:

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Five

"You did _what_?" Beca shouted angrily.

Both Jesse and Benji cringed at her tone.

Of course, that was nothing compared to the absolute rage _machine_ that was Aubrey Posen, standing in the doorway of the empty rehearsal space, covered head to toe in pink glitter and shrieking Chloe's name at the top of her lungs.

"Sparks, I—"

"Don't you _dare,_ " she interrupted. "What the hell is the matter with you two, anyway? She's already a tightass, and now you do _this_ to her four fucking days before the riff-off? Are you actively _trying_ to kill us?"

"It was an accident," Benji said miserably.

Beca's expression softened as she looked at him. Whatever boneheaded idea Jesse had gotten him to agree to probably wasn't his fault in the slightest.

But her hands tightened back up into fists when she looked over to Jesse again. He looked vaguely apologetic, but not nearly enough for her tastes. She raised a hand, to do what she had no idea, but before she could even think of a hex, she felt Chloe's hand on her back.

"I've got the glitter mostly cleaned up," she said quietly. "And I'm going to take Aubrey home. Probably get a couple of drinks in her to calm her down. You're going to get them sorted out, right?" She offered the boys a raised eyebrow and Jesse finally had the decency to blush.

"Tell Aubrey that I'm going to kill them _for_ her," Beca growled. "After I find out what was going through their fucking heads before spraying her with soda and treating her to a Carrie-esque glitter shower."

"Sparkling cider," Jesse said quietly.

She rounded on him. "What?" she asked in a cold voice.

"It wasn't soda. It was sparkling cider. I got carded trying to buy champagne."

There was a popping noise, indicating that Chloe had DIsapparated, taking a still-fairly-hysterical Aubrey with her. Not skipping a beat, Beca grabbed the collar of Jesse's shirt and hauled him to her level so she could glare directly into his eyes. "Explain. Now. Or I start hexing."

"I _told_ you I was planning a romantic gesture," Jesse said, sounding laughably defensive. "The plan was to surprise her as she left rehearsal."

"Well, you _did_ surprise her," she said, smirking and letting him go. "For a given definition of the word 'surprise.'"

He shot Benji a glare. "The plan _was_ supposed to include a glitter-filled _atmosphere_ , for effect, you know? And I was going to Transfigure a flower into a glass flute and fill it with… well, I already told you what happened with the champagne. But…"

"I got startled when the bottle exploded," Benji said. "I'd already started the incantation for the atmosphere spell, and it just… went everywhere. I don't know what happened. I must've practiced a dozen times, and it worked perfectly."

"The bottle exploded?" Beca asked dryly.

Jesse shrugged. "Thought it would be quicker to do an _Accio_ on the cork. Didn't realize how high-pressure that stuff is."

"So Aubrey got a face full of sparkling cider and maybe _broken_ glass, and then Benji dumped enough glitter on her that she's probably going to have bruises? _That_ was your brilliant plan?" She tried not to laugh. She really did. A snicker escaped, though, and Jesse sighed.

"Do you think I've blown it, Sparks?" he asked sadly.

"Let me put it this way, Jess," she replied with a thoughtful hand to her chin. "I think if Aubrey had a choice between going on a date with you and being forced to commit ritualized suicide, she'd probably have to flip a coin."

* * *

It was Sunday. Somehow, Chloe had tricked her into giving up her beloved Sunday to lie in the grass in the middle of the quad, looking up at the clouds moving in the sky and talking about absolutely nothing.

"David Bowie?"

"Wizard," Beca confirmed. "No question. Listen to _Ziggy Stardust_ the whole way through some time."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Chloe's profile, face toward the sun, eyes scrunched shut in concentration. "Nickelback?"

She made a face. "Ew. Muggle. And terrible, besides. How the hell did you go from Bowie to effing Nickelback?"

Chloe giggled. "Miley Cyrus?"

"You're seriously trying to kill me," Beca groaned. "Although I'm pretty sure she's a wizard."

Her eyes flew open. "Really?"

With a laugh, Beca reached over to give Chloe's arm a tap. "Wizard doesn't automatically mean _exceptional_. I mean, look at Bumper Allen. He's a wizard, but he's a horrible human being. And from the videos you and Aubrey have made us watch in rehearsals, his taste in music sucks."

"True," Chloe said, reaching up to grab her hand and holding it firmly. "That tickles."

They were quiet for a few moments – Chloe had lured her outside in the first place by promising to explain healing potion basics to her, but they'd long since gotten side-tracked. "Hey, Chloe?" Beca finally asked.

She hummed, tightening her hand around Beca's own.

"Is… is Aubrey okay?" she asked hesitantly.

Chloe was silent for a good while. And then, "She's seriously hurt, Beca. Not physically, but… she's convinced Bumper put them up to it. And it took me a long time to convince her that you didn't know anything about it either."

"Jesse is horrified," she told her. "It was a complete accident. He was trying to ask her out on a date in the most elaborate way possible, and it literally blew up in his face. The bottle of cider exploded in his hand, you know."

"Aubrey got hit with some glass, but it didn't cut her," Chloe said. "She's lucky, really. The glitter hitting her head like that gave her a black eye, but it's not too bad and she covered it up with makeup this morning. You can't even tell she got hurt."

After Beca helped Jesse patch up his hand last night (using _Accio_ on the glass in his wounds and telling him to quit being such a fucking baby about it), she'd continued to interrogate him and what he'd confessed had pissed her off all over again.

But Chloe needed to know.

"Chloe, there's something else, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but it honestly didn't occur to me," she said softly.

Another hand squeeze. "It's okay, Beca."

"No, it's not," she said. "Last week, Jesse asked me where and when the Bellas rehearse, and he said he wanted to surprise Aubrey. I ignored him, though, because I knew Aubrey would murder me if I told a Treble something like that."

"True," Chloe replied. "But if you didn't tell him, how did Jesse find us?"

"He put a tracing spell on you," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.

The shock was evident in Chloe's voice. "He… what… why _me_?" she asked faintly.

"Um…" she hedged, feeling absolutely horrible, "he might have known how much help you've been needing in Defense and figured you wouldn't be able to detect a tracer. Our old teacher taught us how to break them, so that's why he didn't try it on me. But yesterday morning, he apparently followed you to breakfast and put a tracer on your bag."

Clearly alarmed, Chloe dropped her hand and sat up. "My bag?" she asked, and Beca could hear the rustling as she searched for it in the grass. "Is it…?"

"I took care of it," she said, pushing herself up to a seated position herself. "This morning, when you came barging in hideously early—"

"Eleven AM isn't particularly early, Beca," Chloe said in a sugary-sweet voice.

"Anyway. I took care of it before we left to come out here," she said. "I'm just so, so sorry that Jesse thought it was okay to use you like that. It's not—"

"Beca, it's all right," Chloe said gently, interrupting her rambling apology by putting her hands on Beca's shoulders and pulling her into a quick embrace. "You didn't know, and Jesse's the one who made a bad choice. Besides, I think it's kind of sweet, how much he likes Aubrey. She's never had great relationships, and if she could get past the whole Treble thing—"

"And if Jesse will stop acting like an absolute ass," Beca said bitterly.

She smiled. "That too. Anyway, I think they could be good together. Don't you?"

"I'm biased," she pointed out. "Jesse is like the brother I never wanted, and Aubrey is… well, I don't know if Jesse quite deserves to be punished like that."

Chloe laughed and it sounded like a million bells. "Aubrey isn't as bad as you think, Beca. She's just really wound up over all of this stuff with the Bellas. What happened to her last year at ICCAs has really done a number on her self-confidence."

Flopping back on the grass, Beca watched Chloe run her hands through her hair, brushing out any potential stray leaves and tossing it like a girl in a shampoo commercial. "How do you even know Aubrey, anyway?" she found herself asking curiously. "You act like you've known her for a long time."

With a smile, Chloe eased back to rest her head on Beca's stomach. "If Jesse is like the brother you never wanted, I guess Aubrey is like the sister I always knew I had," she said. "Our moms are first cousins, and they were always really close, so they kind of raised us together. Aubrey is only six weeks older than I am." A smile played across her features. "Sharing a crib kind of brings people together, you know?"

"So you and Aubrey are related?"

She nodded.

Beca hesitated a bit. "But, you're a witch, and she's…"

"Not," Chloe agreed. "I'm as Muggleborn as you can get. As far as we know, I'm the absolute first one with magic in my family. Both sides. It's been a pretty crazy experience."

"I bet." There was no sarcasm in Beca's voice. After all, she'd grown up with a practicing witch for a mother, and she still had moments where magic felt unreal. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Chloe.

"It's kind of funny, actually," she continued, staring up at the sky, absently shredding a bit of grass as she talked. "When I was eight, I read the first _Harry Potter_ book. Two weeks after I finished it, me and Aubrey were playing wizards in her backyard, and I accidentally cast my first spell."

Beca chuckled. "I bet it scared the bejesus out of you."

"You have no idea," Chloe said dryly. "I pointed at a flower pot and said the Levitation spell. It flew across the yard and smashed into a tree. I think Aubrey and I both spent the next hour in full hysterics. That's when the man from the MBI showed up and explained everything to us. It was… surreal."

"Is that why Aubrey… doesn't seem to like magic?" Beca asked carefully. "Was she pissed that you turned out to be a witch and she didn't?"

"Aubrey doesn't actually remember that day," she confessed. "She was so upset that they all decided it would be better if they wiped her memory. But a year later, we got in a fight, I got mad, and I… kind of turned her hair bright purple."

Beca snorted. "Bet that went over like a lead balloon."

"She called me a freak when I told her the truth," Chloe said, wiping what Beca highly suspected was a tear out of her eye. "I hit her, we both cried for a while, and then she apologized. She's okay with magic, I think. My whole family is. And Aubrey… she's like my _sister_ , you know?" Turning to her side, Chloe looked up at Beca through lowered lashes. Something twisted in Beca's gut and she wasn't sure why. "You know how close you and Jesse are?"

With a nod, Beca stuck her arm under her head so she could maintain eye contact as they talked. This was serious.

"Imagine… all of a sudden, I don't know… Jesse found out he was adopted and his real parents came to whisk him away to some amazing, jetsetting lifestyle. Imagine all of this was happening to him, and you could only watch. You'd still be friends, of course, but there would always be this… _thing_ between you." Chloe turned back to face the sky. "I think that's how Aubrey feels. She doesn't mind magic itself, but we've never been able to share everything like we used to before that day, and that's what she can't ever forgive me for."

For a split second, Beca understood Chloe's weird urge to compulsively hug her all of the time. As she heard the sadness in Chloe's voice, all Beca wanted to do was wrap her arms around her and hug the sadness away. She settled for pulling a stray twig out of Chloe's hair instead. "I don't think forgiveness is the right term," she said. "If Aubrey felt like that, she wouldn't hang out with you like she does. She certainly wouldn't be co-captain of the Bellas with you. But…" And it pained her to say it. It really did. "It must be hard for her," she said quietly.

"Yeah," Chloe agreed, going back to tearing up the grass. "I think it is."

* * *

He was waiting for her by the Apparition point for Baker Hall. "Beca," he said in a stern voice.

She nodded casually. "Guy who used to be married to my mother," she replied. "Congrats on finally tracking me down. How's _your_ semester going?"

"Two days ago, I would have said relatively well, but that's before I found out you aren't attending any of your classes," he said in that same pissed-off way.

"I'm attending my classes," she said evenly. "Well, except for calc, but the professor doesn't care as long as we show up for tests. I got a B on the first one, by the way."

"Damn it, Beca, I talked to every single one of your professors," he snapped. "Half of them said you didn't even show up on the first day!"

She rolled her eyes. "How fascinating that you talked to my Defense, Potions, and Transfiguration professors. And you got into a magical building _how_?"

"Don't start with that," he hissed. "Philosophy, psychology, and literature. How about _those_ classes?"

Shrugging, she tried to walk past him to get to the Apparition point. "I dropped them."

He grabbed her arm. "You _what_?"

"The registrar said I only have to be in one Muggle class a term," she said, jerking herself out of his grip. "I picked calculus."

"Beca…"

She took a couple of steps away from him before giving him a nasty glare. "Get it through your skull, _Daddy_ ," she spat, "I'm here for a wizarding degree and nothing else. The instant I'm done, I'm gone, and you don't get a say."

"I thought when you agreed to come to Barden that we would be able to—"

Her laugh was bitter. "I _agreed_ to come to Barden because my best friend had already been accepted here and it seemed like the easiest way to get you to leave me the fuck alone."

"Watch your language, young lady," he said with a frown.

Beca held up a hand. "Oh, no. The parenting train pulled out of the station years ago. You made your choice when you left and got yourself a _normal_ family." She put deliberate emphasis on that word, because it was the one he'd used the day he left them. "We may share DNA, but that's _it_ as far as I'm concerned. Your name is paying for my tuition, but you've done nothing else for me since I was six years old and you got fed up with having a witch for a wife and a kid."

Something in his face shifted. "Would apologizing help?"

"I'm not the one you actually owe an apology to," she said, Disapparating with a 'pop.'

* * *

"You were _awesome_ , Beca," Fat Amy said as she downed a shot of… something.

As the evening progressed, Chloe had gotten increasingly fuzzy about what exactly they were drinking. There were clear shots and there were blue drinks in tall glasses, and both of them were strong enough that they made her eyes water.

"Who knew white girl actually sat and memorized rap lyrics," Chloe slurred with a grin.

"Fuck off," Beca said, finishing one of the blue drinks and waving her other hand in the air. "It doesn't matter because we still lost."

"Oh, bollocks to Aubrey," Amy said dismissively. "Who cares about winning and losing? I mean, I had to lose a lot of apple-eating contests to a lot of different aboriginals before they finally let me join their astronomy club."

Chloe let her head drop to the table. "I have no idea what any of that means," she admitted.

"I just… I _hate_ the fact that we lost to those stupid Trebles," Beca moaned. "I wanted to win."

"I thought you didn't care about a capella," Chloe told the table accusingly. "You _said_ you—"

"I don't care about stupid signs and waving fingers," Beca said. "But didn't you feel the _magic_ tonight?"

Head shooting up, she gave Beca a bleary look. "What magic?"

"Ooh…" Amy teased. "It's happening."

"What's happening?" Chloe asked blankly.

Her smile was smug. "That's for me to know and you to find out, Fanta pants. Now shush, because Beca's telling us all about her aca-magic."

With an eyeroll, Beca grabbed a shot and tossed it back. "Please, _please_ don't say that, Amy," she groaned. "You're the coolest Tasmanian I know, and I don't want you to 'aca' anything. Jesse does it, too, and it's annoying as fuck."

"What about when _I_ do it?" Chloe pouted, not sure why she was pushing the point.

"I refuse to… that thing they say on the crime shows," Beca said, wrinkling her nose. "Demonstrate myself. Whatever. If I say it's annoying, you'll get pissed, but if I say it's cute, you'll freak out."

She grinned. "You think I'm cute?"

"I didn't say that."

"You think I'm cute," she said, convinced.

Fat Amy sighed and pushed herself to her feet. "I'm not drunk enough for this bullshit. I'm going to buy another round."

"I think Fat Amy is my new favorite drinking buddy," Beca said as Amy headed toward the bar. "I'm going clubbing with her all the time now. Jesse can fuck off."

"You could bring him too," Chloe said, closing her eyes as the room started to dip into a crazy spin around her. "He likes Amy, doesn't he?"

Beca made some sort of noise that Chloe was unwilling to open her eyes to figure out. "When Jesse's drunk, all he does is whine about Aubrey. Drunk Jesse is lame. Drunk Amy is fun. Even after losing the stupid riff-off, she's _still_ fun."

"Let it go, Becs," she said, draping her hand across her own forehead. It felt nice and cool.

"But the _magic_ ," Beca said, almost-but-not-quite whining. "The voices all coming together. Couldn't you feel the power of it? It was amazing."

" _Aca_ -mazing," she corrected with a smile.

"Lame."

Chloe finally opened her eyes, tilting her head to bat her eyelashes playfully. "Nuh-uh. You think I'm _cu-ute_ ," she drawled.

Beca shook her head. "You weirdo."

* * *

Chloe's most immediate concern upon waking was the fact that her left armpit felt damp. Her second was that someone was snoring. Loud.

She opened her eyes to see that Beca was curled awkwardly around her arm with her face practically smashed into Chloe's shoulder. Her mouth was open (hence the drooling) and her nose appeared to be partially blocked (hence the snoring).

It wasn't the most attractive look for Beca, but Chloe watched her for a few moments anyway, her cotton-dry mouth and slight headache telling her that drinking with Fat Amy and Beca until almost two in the morning wasn't the best idea she'd ever had.

As carefully as she could, she eased away from Beca, noticing as she got out of bed that they hadn't so much as removed their shoes before going to sleep (passing out?). She headed toward the small collection of bottles on her dresser and started rummaging through them. After a few quiet clinking sounds, the snoring stopped and she heard a loud groan over her shoulder.

"What time is it?" Beca asked muzzily.

"Oh, we've missed lots of classes," Chloe replied. "It's after lunch."

"I might have to rethink my plan about partying with Fat Amy," she said. "The after-effects are…"

"Here," Chloe cut her off by pressing a bottle into her hand. "Hangover remedy."

She drained the whole thing and offered Chloe a wide smile. "I _love_ being friends with a Potions genius," she said dreamily. "You're the best _ever_ , Chloe."

"I can teach you to make it," she offered, drinking her own potion and relaxing as her headache eased up. "It's not that hard."

"I caused a school evacuation junior year when I blew up a cauldron of Swelling Solution," Beca replied, toeing her shoes off and snuggling back into Chloe's comforter. "You know… the potion that's famously only five ingredients?"

She dropped back on the bed, taking her own shoes off and idly combing a hand through Beca's hair. "Okay, so maybe it's not quite that easy," she admitted, sectioning a piece of hair into thirds and beginning to braid it.

Finishing the first braid, she moved on to a second and a third before either of them spoke again. "How's your throat?" Beca asked. "You never took the lead on anything last night. Was it bothering you?"

"I'm trying to take it easy," she said. "It's usually pretty sore after practice, but that's okay as long as I don't push it any other time."

"It's not okay." Beca sat up a little, letting the comforter slip away. "Chloe, what's _really_ wrong with your throat?"

With a nervous cough, she finished Beca's braid and wiped her palms on her jeans. "I already told you, Beca. I have—"

"You _don't_ have nodes," Beca interrupted. "I looked them up online. Nodes aren't as big a deal as you're making about everything. They're not great or anything, but you don't have nodes, Chloe. So what's really wrong?"

Well, shit.

She'd been hoping to avoid this conversation. Not even Aubrey had questioned her node diagnosis.

"There's not really an official term for it," she said. "So calling them vocal nodes is as good a word as any other."

"But it's worse," Beca said flatly.

Closing her eyes, Chloe let her head jerk in a small nod. "I spend most days hanging over cauldrons," she said. "And I breathe in stuff that we're not really supposed to breathe in all that much. The fumes aren't usually toxic, but they cause long-term throat damage. Call them nodes, cysts, tumors, whatever. Potions and music are the two things I love more than anything else, but apparently I'm not allowed to have both of them. Either I can keep my voice and stay away from potions, or I can keep brewing but lose most of my singing voice."

When Beca blinked, Chloe was stunned to see a tear trickle down her cheek. "Chloe, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"It'll be okay," she said firmly, because what choice did she have in all of this but to remain calm? "My advisor and I are working on a solution. Besides, it's not like I didn't know this could happen. Have you ever met a potions master that _didn't_ sound like they lived on cigarettes and whiskey? Maybe I'll start singing the blues."

Slowly, hesitantly, Beca leaned her head on Chloe's shoulder in an unconscious echo of the position they'd woken up in. Chloe turned so she could inhale the combined scents of Beca's shampoo, perfume, and the muskiness of her sweat from the night before. She wasn't sure she should find it as comforting as she did, but that was beyond the point.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Laying the groundwork for the whole 'failed Russian lit' thing in PP2, which I have an alternate explanation for that shall be revealed in due course.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Six

"Not that I'm not eternally grateful to you guys for bailing me out and all," Beca said, taking in her surroundings with apprehension, "but why did you bring me to a _bar_?"

Chloe shrugged. "Aubrey wanted to have a Bellas meeting, Fat Amy wanted a drink, and Stacie wanted to pick up guys. We're multi-tasking."

She turned to Jesse. "And you're here why?"

"Can't a guy be concerned about his bestie?" Jesse asked, pasting on a hurt expression and putting his hand over his heart. "You wound me to the quick, Sparks. I am _all_ about the friendship over here."

"You can't try to talk to Aubrey," Beca reminded him. "She'll murder you with nothing but her stare after what you did to her."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm just here to share a beer with my good friend who was willing to go to jail to get me out of a fight."

"Speaking of," Chloe said, reaching out to grab her hand, "how badly did you hurt your hand when you hit that guy, Rocky?"

"I'm going to feel it tomorrow," she admitted, "but not too bad. A beer would fix it."

"First round is on me, Shawshank!" Fat Amy cried gleefully, waving them over to a nearby table.

Beca decided not to point out that since she basically went to prison because Amy ran away from the scene of the alleged crime, Amy owed her as much beer as she wanted. Instead, she headed over to have a seat, Chloe pressed to one side and Jesse to the other.

Aubrey gave Jesse exactly the same look she gave Beca whenever she messed up the choreography. "What the hell is _he_ doing here?"

"I paid half of Beca's bail," he said helpfully.

"Beca, consorting with the _enemy_ is—"

"Oh, shut up, Aubrey," Chloe said companionably, pouring herself a beer from the mostly full pitcher. "Jesse's already apologized about the glitter thing and he'll go away whenever you want to talk about Bella business. Right, Jesse?"

"Sure," he agreed, pulling the cup from Chloe's hands and taking a long drink. "And Aubrey, I'm really—"

Aubrey gave him a long glare. "Jesse, go away. We're having an emergency Bellas meeting."

His grin was extraordinarily dopey, even by Jesse standards. As he moved away from the table, still cradling his stolen beer, he leaned over to whisper gleefully in Beca's ear, "She knows my _name_!"

"You're pathetic!" she called in his wake.

"Beca!" Aubrey snapped. "Your attention, please."

"We can't get started without Stacie," Cynthia Rose said.

Rolling her eyes, Aubrey scowled at the group in general. "Where did she go? She was here five seconds ago."

Ashley-or-Jessica giggled. "There."

Sure enough, Stacie was halfway across the room, perched in some random guy's lap and whispering something no doubt either seductive or filthy (or both) in his ear.

"Stacie!" Aubrey called.

With a pout, Stacie came back over to the table. "Make it quick. He's getting restless." She pointed at her crotch and the rest of the Bellas groaned in disgust.

And Aubrey did make it quick. She started blathering about score sheets and perfect routines and boring, boring, boring. In self-defense, Beca tuned her out and settled for watching the muscles in Chloe's throat tighten and relax as she nodded along with Aubrey's speech.

After a while, the table fell silent and the girls were giving each other resigned looks that would have broken Beca's heart had she been more emotionally invested in this whole deal. Wasn't the point to have _fun_? Being a Bella was about as fun as colonic irrigation probably was.

But Chloe's expression…

Beca dimly remembered that Chloe had (naively) thought maybe Aubrey would be more open to suggestion if they did well at semi-finals. It was possible that she thought she might get her best friend back. The disappointment on her face told Beca that Chloe was realizing just how wrong she'd been.

That she couldn't take.

"Aubrey," she said, "we need to take—"

And Chloe's hand was on her arm. Pinching.

Hard.

"Beca," she hissed. "Beca, don't."

"But Chloe…" she whispered.

"You'll just make it worse."

Aubrey was studying them both with narrowed eyes, so Beca dropped it, choosing instead to offer Aubrey a mocking smile. "I'm going to have a beer," she said. "To celebrate my release."

And she held her tongue for the rest of the night.

* * *

Jesse dropped a stack of CD cases on the cart and offered her a bright smile. "So, Sparks, about that hundred bucks you owe me…"

She blew out an exasperated breath. "I swear, Jesse, I'll—"

"What I was going to say," he interrupted with an imperious gesture, nose in the air in an imitation, she was sure, of some moron from some stupid movie she hadn't seen, "was that I'm willing to call it square if you do me a favor instead."

"A favor?" she echoed suspiciously, shuffling through a stack of records.

Nodding, he started to push the cart, shelving CDs as he walked. "I've learned my lesson with Aubrey. I'm not going to go for anything showy again."

"But…" She was _not_ getting a good feeling about where this conversation was headed.

"But I'm going to try again." He held up a hand to forestall potential protests – which was kind of dumb, because Beca was resolved to let him dig his own grave where Aubrey was concerned. "I realized that I don't actually know her all that well."

"You think?" she scoffed. "You've talked to her exactly twice, dude."

"That's totally my point," he said. "I need to get to know her before I ask her out, and you can help me with that."

"How?" she asked blankly.

He practically threw the last CD on the shelf so he could wave his arms in a gesture that hilariously reminded her of Kermit the Frog. "You spend, like, two hours a day with her!" he cried.

"I spend two hours a day with her yelling at me and insulting my musical ability," she pointed out. "It's not really a conducive bonding environment, Jess. Everything I know about Aubrey, I learned from Chloe."

Snapping his fingers, he rushed forward to grab her wrist. "That's it!"

"Dude, let go of me," she said, tearing herself out of his grip.

"Talk to Chloe," he said, grabbing her again and pulling her close enough that their foreheads were touching. "Explain my issue, and tell her that my intentions are pure. I bet anything she'll help me out."

"She's kind of pissed about that tracing spell," Beca said, leaning backward. "I know she doesn't mind the idea of you taking Aubrey out, but I don't know how psyched she would be to actively participate."

He finally released her. "Then tell her that I'll let you off the hook for the money if she joins in. She's got a total lady-crush on you."

"What?" Beca cried, cheeks growing hot.

"Oh, please," he sighed, loading the cart back up with CDs. "It's so obvious that even _Benji_ has noticed. She's always hugging you and telling you how cute you are. If I were you, I'd make out with her at least. She's hot."

"Have you had a head injury today that I'm only just now noticing?" she exclaimed. "She treats me like a fucking _puppy_ , Jesse. That's not make-out material."

He shrugged. "Either way. She'll totally join Operation Date Aubrey when _you_ ask her to."

Groaning, she buried her head in her hands. "You _named_ it? I am so incredibly embarrassed on your behalf."

"My sympathy is limited," he said flatly. "Now, either bring me Chloe and her Aubrey-knowledge, or bring me a hundred bucks. The choice is yours."

"I hate you."

* * *

"Can I ask you a weird question?"

It wasn't going to be about Jesse's favor. It would be way easier to just pay him back. Besides, if she had to think about his cracked theory one more time, she would…

Chloe hummed, disrupting Beca's mental rant.

They were sort-of-studying together, which meant that Beca was working on a calculus assignment while Chloe mostly browsed her mash-up collection while pretending to do online research for some paper or another.

"What's your Muggle class?" she asked.

Turning away from the laptop screen, Chloe gave her a confused look. "What?"

"We have to take one Muggle class a semester, right? That's why I'm working on this." She tapped her calc book. "So which class are you taking right now?"

She smiled. "Russian literature."

Beca's mouth fell open. "That's… I wasn't…"

Laughing at her obvious distress, Chloe spun all the way around in Beca's desk chair. "Like I've said before, I'm a woman of multiple shades and dimensions. Russian is my minor."

This just… didn't make sense. "You _speak_ Russian?" Beca asked incredulously. "Like, _fluently_?"

"Koneshko, moya lyutishka," Chloe replied, wrinkling her nose in what had to be the absolute cutest gesture Beca had ever seen in her entire life.

"I…" Beca breathed, unable to focus on anything except the awesomeness that was Chloe Beale's mind for a few seconds. "Wait. What did you say?"

She laughed again. "Learn Russian and you'll figure it out."

Beca stuck her tongue out. "Bitch."

"You love it."

"Anyway…" she drawled, sensing that they were moving into something dangerous and wanting to avoid it. "What made you pick Russian?"

"In high school, when I realized I wanted to study Potions as a career, I got frustrated because so many of the great masters are Russian. Translation spells miss a lot of details, so I started learning the language so I could read Russian Potions journals," she explained. "When I came to Barden and they explained the whole Muggle class thing, it just made sense to continue with Russian. I'm pretty good at it now."

"Yeah, I got that," she said. "Cone-ko lush-ka, is that what you said before?"

"Not even in the ballpark," Chloe replied sweetly. "Now, get back to your Riemann sums or whatever. I'm supposed to be reading Pushkin."

"Aye, aye, captain," she said, tossing off a mocking salute for good measure.

They went back to silent studying and lasted for a solid twenty minutes before Chloe cleared her throat.

"Yes…?" Beca asked playfully.

"I'm going to exercise my weird-question privilege now," Chloe announced. "After all, I've told you all about my personal life, and you know tons of things about me that no one but Aubrey knows, and all I know about you is that you're a Defense prodigy."

"Please," she said with a dismissive hand wave. "I'm _not_ a prodigy, Chloe. I just… have good reflexes. The rest is memorizing jinxes."

"Says you," she retorted. "Anyway. I'm going to ask you a personal question and you're going to answer it."

"You know about my music, too," Beca pointed out desperately. "That's personal, and no one but Jesse knows about that."

She smiled. "That's my point. I want to know about you and Jesse and your… bro-ship."

"Bro-ship?" she echoed, amused.

Chloe snorted. "Whatever you want to call it. I know you and Jesse went to high school together. Is that where you met?"

"Not at all," Beca said, shaking her head. "I've known Jesse since I was seven years old. He, um…" She thought about how to explain her relationship with Jesse while simultaneously leaving out childhood details she'd rather not discuss. It didn't seem possible. "Okay, Chloe, the first thing you have to understand is that my childhood was… hellishly complicated."

Her expression was soft and full of compassion. The fact that she didn't actually ask for details was the reason Beca could bring herself to continue.

"My dad walked out on us when I was six," she said. "And my mom… um… she's _delicate_ ," was the word Beca finally settled on, knowing that 'delicate' didn't quite cover the reality of the situation. "Jesse's dad is my mom's doctor," she explained. "Healer. Whatever. Anyway, Jesse would come over to play when, you know, stuff was going on with my mom. So we got to know each other really well."

"Oh." Chloe looked like she wanted to cry.

But she still _didn't ask_ , and Beca found herself relaxing by small degrees.

"We kind of grew up together, so when we were starting sixth grade and had to go to a wizarding school, it made sense for us to go to the same one. I'd say he and I have pretty much the same thing going on as you and Aubrey do, minus the blood connection. I figure if we've puked on, bled on, and beaten each other up, we're basically stuck with each other forever, right?" She offered Chloe a small smile.

"I'm glad he was there," she replied. "It sounds like he needed to be."

Tilting her head, her smile widened as she thought about everything. "Yeah," she said softly. "He did."

* * *

Chloe flopped onto her bed with a groan. "I'm never going to get this," she said into her pillow. "Never ever, ever."

Beca's hand on her shoulder was hesitant but her response wasn't. "You _will_ ," she said firmly. "Get up and try again."

"I can't," Chloe said, hearing the whine in her voice and not caring. "I'm going to fail, I won't get my core credit to graduate, and then I'll never be a Potions master."

"Is _that_ why you're in Intro Defense?" Beca asked. "I mean, it's a freshman class, and I've been wondering all of this time."

She flipped over so that she was facing the ceiling. "I was _busy_ ," she explained. "I got everything out of the way except for one core class, and the only ones with openings left this year when I got to registration were Muggle Studies and Defense. I'm not actually eligible for Muggle Studies."

"That's an actual class? Who the hell _takes_ it?" she asked incredulously.

"Benji, I bet."

Beca wrinkled her nose. "He's probably the only one. Jeez!" She mouthed the words ' _Muggle studies_ ' to herself a couple of times before shaking her head, grabbing Chloe's hand, and giving it a tug. "Anyway. Come on. You're going to cast a Patronus tonight. I _promise_."

Usually, Chloe kept her frustration hidden for as long as she could, but tonight, she was irritated, tired, confident of her failure on tomorrow's practical, and unwilling to put up with Beca's uncharacteristic optimism. "I'm sleepy," she said petulantly, tugging the opposite way on Beca's hand.

Allowing herself to be pulled forward, Beca landed on Chloe's bed, nearly on top of her. She rolled on her side and gave Chloe a smile. "When did this role reversal thing happen?" she asked, waving a hand back and forth between them. "Normally, you're, like, _hemorrhaging_ sunshine, and I'm the one who's all 'go away, I need to sleep.'"

"I don't have any happy thoughts left in me tonight," she said, burying her head in Beca's shoulder. "And for the record, hemorrhaging sunshine sounds painful."

"Maybe I'm not the best at word choice a hundred percent of the time," Beca grumbled. "So sue me." She could feel the vibrations in Beca's chest and throat as she spoke, and Chloe let her eyes slide shut, basking in the comforting sensation.

She felt gentle fingers in her hair and bit back a content sigh. Maybe, if she approached it in the right way, she could convince Beca to spend the night. That way she'd at least have a good night's sleep heading into their exam tomorrow.

The room was quiet and comfortable, and Chloe really _was_ on the verge of falling asleep when Beca eased away from her. "Chloe, do you trust me?" she whispered.

Her eyes snapped open, wide and round. What on Earth was Beca thinking about? "Yes…"

This time, when Beca tugged on her hands, Chloe stood up without protest.

"I think we should sing something," Beca said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Here? Now?"

"Sure," she replied with a shrug. "Don't you sing, like, all the time?"

"It just feels a little _High School Musical_ to all of a sudden burst into song about my Patronus problems," she admitted.

"Okay, so I'm going to totally forget that you referenced that stupid movie—"

"How do you know it's stupid if you haven't seen it?" Chloe sing-songed. "Are you a closet Zac Efron fan, Becs?"

Scowling, Beca released her hands so she could fold her arms over her chest in a defensive gesture. "What I was _saying_ was that whenever we're singing, you're always happy," she told her. "So maybe if we sing something, it'll put you in a good enough mood to try for a Patronus again."

Chloe thought about it. "You know…" she finally said, "that's a pretty good idea."

"I've been known to have them from time to time," Beca said sarcastically. "It's rare, but it happens. Now, pick a song."

Talk about pressure. Although Beca would have gotten pissed off if Chloe had pointed it out, she was a total music snob. So there was a fine line – a song that was sufficiently fun to sing that would also keep Beca's snide remarks to a minimum. And she had less than fifteen seconds before eyerolling would likely commence.

Screw it.

" _She Will Be Loved_ ," Chloe said, flinging caution to the winds. "Maroon 5. Criticize and die."

Beca raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't going to. You want to start?"

As she counted off to herself, she couldn't help hearing the guitar intro in her head, and Beca joined in by the third word, spinning a harmony under the verses. Chloe let her take lead on the chorus, because while the highest notes weren't especially taxing for her throat, it was late and she'd spent the entire day talking. Somehow, Beca _knew_ this, and the song never faltered.

By the second verse, they were grinning at each other like idiots, and Chloe flung her arms wide in an impulsive twirl, feeling so happy and powerful that she was sure if she thought about it, she could see the magic spiraling between them.

They ended in the usual echo of the first couple of bars, still smiling, faces flushed.

Drunk on the moment, Chloe pointed her wand toward the middle of the room, gave it a practiced twirl, and shouted, " _Expecto Patronum_!"

Her mouth fell open as a large silvery shape all but _leapt_ from her hand, pacing around the room with a frantic energy that Chloe usually felt herself while in the middle of brewing a potion.

Beca's eyes were wide. "Wow," she said. "That's… that's…"

"A _panther_ ," Chloe said delightedly. "She's _beautiful_."

And she was – sleek and solid enough that Chloe's fingers itched to pet her. She continued circling, pausing every now and again to drop to her haunches and give them an indecipherable feline look complete with whisker grooming and tail twitching.

"I think I'm impressed," Beca said.

"You should be," she replied, dismissing the Patronus with a flick of her wand. "I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you, Beca."

Beca's cheeks were pink and her smile was oddly sweet. "Any time."

TBC

* * *

Further Note: " _Koneshko, moya lyutishka"_ roughly translates to "Of course, my little buttercup." My Russian-speaking friend tells me that this is more of a transliteration and a native Russian speaker might not know exactly what Chloe was saying because the idiom doesn't translate well. Just in case there's someone more fluent in Russian than I am reading this (which is quite possible, as I stuck to Romance languages when I was in school).


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: No update tomorrow. Daily updates should resume on Saturday.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Seven

"Mitchell and Beale," Professor Palmer said, not looking up from the notebook he was making notations in. "You're up."

The spring midterm score consisted of two parts. The first was a pitched mock-duel where full marks would only be awarded for non-verbal shielding from both participants, and the second was a demonstration of six spells they'd covered over the year, including the Patronus that Chloe had been freaking out about for the last week.

Beca wasn't especially worried, but she could see the panic in Chloe's expression as they faced each other on the little platform the professor set up at the beginning of class.

To be fair, many of the other students hadn't fared well. The class had to take a break ten minutes ago because a shield absolutely failed to hold, sending a kid crashing into the back wall with an overenthusiastic _Expelliarmus_. The kid's nose was shattered beyond what a basic _Episkey_ could fix, but he seemed more worried about the grade than the blood. Not that Beca could blame him – anyone on the Auror track who failed Intro Defense probably wasn't going to continue on the Auror track for much longer.

Which was why she was probably the least anxious student in the room right now. Next week, though, when she had her Potions midterm on Tuesday and Bellas' Regionals on Friday? Different story entirely.

She'd worry about that later and instead offered Chloe a sly wink. "We've got this," she said quietly.

They'd agreed while practicing that Chloe would cast the first hex, and she lunged forward, snapping her wand in an impatient gesture. " _Stupefy_!" she cried.

Silently, Beca moved her hands downward, speaking the Shield Charm in her head. Stunner deflected, she began to raise her wand, but Chloe surprised her by twirling her wand again, " _Conglaciare_!"

"Shit," Beca squeaked, raising another shield and dropping to a crouch, just in case she wasn't quick enough. Fortunately, the Freezing Spell dissipated over her head – she'd blocked in time, so her grade was still safe. That didn't mean she wasn't pissed at Chloe, though.

From her position on the ground, she leveled her wand at Chloe and cried, " _Incarcerous_!" Not the nicest spell to cast in the middle of what was supposed to be a friendly sparring match, but she was beyond nice at this point.

Chloe's hands flicked and the spell shattered against her shield. " _Stupefy_!" Chloe tried again.

Shielded and done. " _Tantellegra_!" A bit kinder this time.

Nothing. " _Expelliarmus_ ," Chloe countered, throwing in a second wand flick and a Bat-Bogey Hex for good measure.

After blocking both, Beca managed to scramble to her feet and give Chloe a glare. "Really? Are you _ten_?"

The class tittered and Chloe threw back her head, practically cackling with glee. " _Gaudio beo_ ," she chanted.

"Seriously," Beca said, blocking the Cheering Charm with a hand wave as she spoke, "can we not?" But as she was trying to mislead Chloe with her banter, she turned her palms over and cast her best nonverbal Stunner.

Something must have been broadcast in her face, though, because Chloe grinned and swept her hand forward. "Ha!" she shouted, blocking Beca's hex.

"And time," Professor Palmer said lazily, scribbling a few notes in his book. "Well done, ladies. Are you ready for the individual portion, or do you need a moment?"

"I'll go," Beca replied.

She cast her spells without much thought, except for that final Patronus. Even though it wasn't technically required, she wanted to see if she could manage it nonverbally. In her practice attempts, her memory of her first successful Patronus hadn't worked, and it was probably stupid to try a spell she'd never pulled off before in the middle of a midterm exam, but her adrenaline was high.

Closing her eyes, Beca thought about the night before, the energy pulsing back and forth as she and Chloe sang together, and the absolute pride and joy she'd felt when Chloe managed to summon her Patronus.

 _Expecto Patronum_ , she thought triumphantly. _Expecto Patronum!_

The class gasped. Obviously, something had come of her spell.

With some apprehension, Beca opened her eyes and gaped at her new Patronus. A huge wolf stalked around the room, silver and deadly, coming finally to Beca's side and looking up at her with all of the obedience of a trained dog.

"Show off," Chloe murmured.

Professor Palmer had dropped his pen and was openly staring at her. Eventually, he seemed to recollect himself and offered her the briefest of nods. "Nice work, Miss Mitchell. Miss Beale, are you ready?"

"I'm not sure if I want to follow her," Chloe said with a grimace. But the whole class laughed at that and the tension was broken.

Although not as quickly as Beca had, Chloe ran through her required spells with efficiency if not elegance. When it came time for the Patronus, she gave Beca a nervous look. She made a silly face in response, sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes. Chloe giggled and her entire body relaxed. " _Expecto Patronum_ ," she said relatively softly, twirling her wand.

It was the same panther from the night before, doing that same circling motion before sprawling in front of Chloe in a lazy-yet-protective gesture. "Excellent, Miss Beale," Professor Palmer said, and there was genuine warmth in his tone. He knew as well as anyone how much Chloe had struggled with this particular charm.

"Thanks," Chloe said with a proud grin.

Beca couldn't help leaning toward her as they walked out of the classroom. "I _said_ we had this, didn't I?" she said quietly. And then, recalling the duel, she frowned. "But what was that earlier? Did I offend you or something?"

"The professor looked bored," Chloe replied. "I thought I'd get his attention. It wasn't like you couldn't handle it, and I bet he gives you extra credit for deflecting everything."

"Doubt it," she said. "I mean, what's the worst that would have happened if my shield went out because of a stupid Cheering Charm? Besides, you knocked me pretty flat on my ass with that Freezing Charm, even if I shielded it. I probably lost points there."

With a smile that took the edge off her words, Chloe shook her head. "Poor, pitiful Defense prodigy. Does that mean your grade drops from a hundred to a ninety-eight? I weep on your behalf. It's a really good thing that Palmer doesn't curve, you know. The whole class would be out for your blood."

"You too?" Beca teased.

"Who would help me with my Patronus if I poisoned you?" she asked matter-of-factly. "That was a nice one earlier, by the way. I didn't know you could do a wolf."

"I didn't either," she admitted. "I tried a different memory this time."

"Keep it," Chloe said, patting her arm. "A wolf Patronus is _way_ sexier than a dog. Even Palmer was impressed. I don't know if you noticed, but the guy looked absolutely shocked."

She grinned. "Really?"

"Oh, totes," she said confidently. "What was your wolf-memory, anyway? It must be something you really love."

Beca's smile froze.

 _You_.

* * *

"Jesse, I have a serious problem," Beca said desperately.

He held up an empty LP sleeve and waggled his eyebrows at her. "And I have a serious cash flow problem. Things suck all the way around, Sparks."

She sighed. "Chloe's coming over at three to talk about Aubrey," she told him. "Satisfied?"

Her original plan had been to just pay him back, but she was running short right now and faced with a choice between borrowing the money from Chloe or just asking Chloe for a favor, she chose the lesser of two evils. Because Chloe would insist that the money was just a _gift_ and the ensuing guilt wouldn't be worth it.

He grunted and dropped the album cover. "Immensely. What's your problem, best friend o' mine?"

"You can't make fun of me," she warned.

Placing a hand to his chest, Jesse made a protesting noise. " _Moi_? Make fun? Why, Beca, I am positively insulted at the insinuation that I'm not capable of—"

"IkindofmaybehaveathingforChloeIthink," she said quickly, before she could come to her senses and keep her mouth shut.

He blinked. "Come again?"

"Crush," she said in a strangled voice. "Chloe. Problem."

"She likes you," he said, shrugging. "You like her, apparently. I don't see a problem, Becs. Go forth and have fun." He made a shooing motion with one hand and picked up yet another of the eternal stacks of CDs with another.

This was why having a guy for a best friend wasn't always a great thing. "But, Jesse…" she whined. "I have _feelings_. Like, significant ones. What if she—"

"You aren't going to _know_ unless you get off your ass and _tell_ her, Sparks," he interrupted. "You two hang out all the time. And whining is seriously unattractive, you know."

"That's my point!" she cried. " _Now_ we hang out all the time, and it's… it's…" She trailed off, knowing she had a stupid smile on her face. "But if I tell her, and she doesn't feel the same way, and I've screwed it up, and then I've lost… I've lost _Chloe_ ," she exclaimed in horror. "I can't _lose_ Chloe!"

Jesse finished the stack and moved on to the next without skipping a beat. "I think you're angsting over nothing," he told her. "Now, let's say you were – oh, let's pick a random example – totally in love with a girl who is only peripherally aware you exist and only notices you because she's convinced she hates you. _That_ would be a problem."

"Fuck you," Beca retorted. "At least when Aubrey blows you off, you won't be any worse off."

Looking up from his work, he used a CD case to point at her. "You're kind of cute when you're freaking out like this, Sparks. It's like the tin man realizing he had a heart all along. And I didn't even know you were gay, either."

She paused to give it a moment's thought. "I… I didn't either," she said thoughtfully. Did liking Chloe make her gay? Did she need to, like, come out to people before she was allowed to like Chloe? How did these things work?

"I guess you don't have to be," Jesse replied, dusting his hands off on his pants and coming over to sit on the desk that Luke had repeatedly warned them not to have sex on. "I mean, labels are kind of last century, right?"

"Right," she said, not quite believing it even as she said it. "I mean… no. Maybe?"

"Well, as long as you're sure about it," he said with a snigger.

"Shut up, asshole. I'm having a personal identity crisis right now. You're supposed to be supportive and stuff," she said, lip curling up in a sneer.

Shaking his head, he slid back so he could prop himself up against the wall behind the desk. "I _am_ ," he said earnestly. "You say you like Chloe, and I say that's cool. You say you're not sure if you're gay or not, and I say that's cool, too. In what way am I being unsupportive, Becs?"

"I think I am gay," she heard herself say desperately.

His eyes rounded. "Okay…"

"No, dude," she persisted, "let's think about this. The couple of guys I dated in high school mostly because they asked. I've never particularly had a crush on anyone—"

"Until now," he interrupted.

"Until now," she agreed with a nod. "And the stuff I've done, like, physically with boys…"

"Ew." Jesse covered his eyes with a hand. "Sister zone, creep factor level twenty and rising."

She threw a pencil at him. " _Anyway_. That stuff wasn't anything earth-shattering. I've never really thought about girls, but I don't think I'm all that into guys."

Uncovering his face, Jesse glanced down at his watch. "Great. You're gay, happy, and ready to taste the rainbow. What time did you say Chloe would be coming over again?"

Shit. She'd forgotten that. "Three."

"It's five minutes past," he said. "What are you going to tell her?"

Her stomach promptly knotted with fear. "Nothing." It was one thing to acknowledge her feelings to herself, but to tell Chloe was something entirely different.

He raised an eyebrow. "Nothing?" he echoed.

"Nothing," she confirmed.

"I would argue, but I'm too focused on Operation Date Aubrey to fight you on it," he said.

"You named it?" Chloe's voice floated into the room. "That's so sweet."

Beca made a face at him before Chloe came around the corner. "That's _one_ word for it," she said dryly. "We're over in the shelves, Chloe."

With her newfound self-knowledge, Beca felt like she was looking at Chloe for the first time. She was wearing a dark blue shirt that matched her eyes almost perfectly, and her hair curled around her face so prettily that Beca wanted to bury her hands in it. She was gorgeous and she was smiling at Beca as if she were the only other person in the whole world. Beca had never wanted to kiss someone so badly in her entire life.

Apparently, she had fallen totally head-over-heels in love with Chloe Beale without noticing it.

When the _fuck_ did that happen?

* * *

Aubrey was a tightly wound coil of energy to her left, Fat Amy's usually comforting exuberance was currently less than comforting, and Chloe, uncharacteristically, looked like she wanted to vomit.

Mostly, Beca wanted this ordeal to be over and done with. Regionals may have been critically important for the full Bella experience, but Beca had better shit to do.

Like go talk to Luke, who had only just recently noticed that her interest in music might stretch beyond stacking billions of CDs and records.

And beg for clemency from Professor Tyson, who was less than impressed with Beca's midterm potions practical. She might not have melted a cauldron, but her Brain Elixir, which was supposed to be an orange-ish potion that smelled faintly of roses, turned out closer to charcoal-colored and reeked of dried beetle paste.

Or even agonize over her freshly identified feelings for Chloe and what to do about them.

Standing on a stage dressed like the world's frumpiest flight attendant and doing stupid jazz hands while singing background for songs that were popular before she was even born? That shouldn't register on Beca's radar.

And yet, here she was. She offered Chloe a thin smile, but it went unreturned.

Probably because the Trebles had been their usual talented selves, and some group Beca didn't care about that had costuming even lamer than theirs (Blue hoodies and sweatpants on a stage? Really? Who _did_ that?) kicked some serious a capella ass right before the Bellas were called onstage.

They shuffled into position, most of the girls pasting on large fake smiles. As they launched (for the zillionth time) into _The Sign_ , Beca could actually see the judges' faces falling. Inwardly, she sighed.

The whole audience was bored. Even the kids watching from the wings of the stage looked bored.

And Beca _totally_ had better shit to do than this.

Stupid Bellas. Stupid Potions class. Stupid romantic feelings.

She gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep pointing at nothing.

Stupid choreography. Stupid boring songs. Stupid _everything_.

It was too much.

As she continued to sing, she felt the usual build-up of magic that she always did whenever singing a capella. It wasn't a big deal, though, because the routine was so uninspired that the accumulation was minimal.

Not now. Somehow, her frustration and embarrassment and worry were all making her feel sort of jittery. She turned to the right instead of to the left like she was supposed to, and Fat Amy gave her a concerned look.

Beca swallowed. It felt like something was stuck in her throat. And her fingers were tingling.

They were supposed to bring their palms together now for Chloe's solo, but Beca's hands sparked as soon as her fingers touched. She hissed at the sensation, and Chloe turned slightly, still singing, but staring openly at Beca.

Her hair was practically crackling with energy, and even Aubrey was giving her a strange look.

Beca couldn't move. Her feet felt frozen to the stage. A murmur ran through the crowd, and she heard someone scream.

Before she blacked out, Beca realized that the scream she heard was her own.

* * *

Despite several magical accidents in her childhood, Chloe had never needed an Obliviate Squad. She learned in school that they usually only showed up when such a large-scale inappropriate use of magic had occurred that the fear of exposure practically required Muggle memories to be altered. They were the wizarding equivalent of bogeymen, and plenty of her teachers used to warn them that if they didn't learn to properly control their magic, the Obs men would come and lock them up forever.

The reality, in many ways, was more terrifying.

This had little to do with the Obs squad themselves and more to do with the preceding events, which would haunt Chloe for the rest of her life.

The routine was… well, it was Aubrey's routine and the rest of the girls were going through the motions, and even Chloe knew that they weren't going to get to Lincoln Center the way this was going.

But Beca… something was seriously wrong. She'd seen a few magical sparks leap off her hands at the start of ' _Eternal Flame_ ,' and it only got worse after that. When they were supposed to move away from each other, Beca seemed stuck in place, arms jerking in a horrible marionette-like motion.

Chloe remembered dropping the microphone, and then Beca was on the ground, flailing and throwing off magical energy in huge bursts. The audience went into panicked hysterics, but Chloe's only concern was getting to Beca.

Which was why she was currently folded up on the stage, cradling Beca's head in her lap, watching as wizards in striped robes rounded up the throng of Muggles, casting Memory Charms _en masse_. Aubrey, Jesse, and Fat Amy were all up on the stage with them – the rest of the Bellas, except (oddly) Cynthia Rose, were all standing in the orchestra pit, blank-eyed from the fresh _Obliviate_ that had just been cast on all of them.

Cynthia Rose hovered a good distance away, alert but worried, looking at Beca with something approaching panic. "Is she okay?" she asked quietly, voice carrying despite the noise of the audience.

"I don't know," Chloe admitted in a tear-clogged voice.

Fat Amy tilted her head, studying Cynthia Rose closely. "You're not a wizard," she told her matter-of-factly.

"No," she replied. "But my brother is. He's still in high school, but I know about magic and stuff, so the dudes in the candy-cane bathrobes left me alone."

Aubrey giggled inanely at the description but fell silent when Chloe glared up at her.

All of a sudden, Jesse cleared his throat. "Chloe," he said, "is Beca's breathing normal?"

She watched Beca's chest rise and fall. She felt Beca's strong heartbeat under her hand. "I think so," she said.

He said something into a cell phone, and Chloe wondered how she hadn't noticed the phone before.

Tentatively, she ran her fingers down Beca's cheek. Her eyelashes fluttered, and Chloe smiled a bit at the motion. If not for the stage lights and the noise and the fear, she maybe could have fooled herself into thinking they were in her dorm room, Beca taking a nap after complaining about homework.

" _Moya lyutishka_ ," she whispered, touching Beca's face again, a realization dawning as gently as a breath against her cheek.

She was in love. And had been for a good, long while.

"Chloe, what…?" Aubrey asked, something in her expression telling Chloe that maybe she'd guessed at the same truth that had only just made itself obvious.

A single tear slid down her face, dripping off her chin and landing on Beca's forehead.

This time, her eyelashes did a fair bit more than just flutter. With a loud groan, Beca shifted in Chloe's lap. Alarmed, Chloe put her hands against Beca's cheeks. "Stay still, Becs," she muttered. "You might have hit your head when you fell."

"Wha…?" she moaned, eyes opening to slits. "Chlo…"

"I'm here," she replied. "We're all here. It's okay."

"Jesse…" Beca whined.

He dropped to his knees. "Sparks," he said warmly, taking one of her hands in his.

"What happened?"

"You made Regionals more interesting," he told her. "Apparently, you really, really wanted to meet an Obs squad. Congrats on achieving your life goal."

Her eyes flew open. "Shit!"

Chloe shushed her and tried to keep her from sitting up, but Beca was clearly determined. Even Aubrey looked concerned as Beca forced herself to a seated position, paling as she took in the spectacle that was the Obs squad charming the audience into forgetting what they'd witnessed.

"Oh, _no_ …" Beca sighed. "Aubrey, I'm—"

"You couldn't help it, could you?" Aubrey asked, and Chloe winced at the sharp note in her voice. "If you couldn't help it, it's not your fault."

Beca was silent, staring at her hands in her lap.

The familiar 'pop' of Apparition echoed across the stage, and there was suddenly an older, bearded man that Chloe had never seen before pulling Beca into a gentle hug. The poor girl dissolved into tears as she fell into his arms, and Chloe almost intervened, afraid he was upsetting her, but a hand on her shoulder kept her in place.

"It's okay," Jesse said quietly. "That's my dad. I called him as soon as I realized what happened. He'll take care of her."

 _Not like I could_ , Chloe thought, wondering simultaneously what it was she was missing about the situation. Because as she watched Jesse's dad stroke Beca's hair, it became clearer and clear that there was something larger at work here that she didn't know about.

"You're okay, Beca," Jesse's dad said, making Beca cry even harder.

"I—" she hiccupped.

He eased out of the embrace, placing a hand to Beca's forehead and muttering what could only be the words to some sort of spell.

For a second, Chloe was worried, but then she remembered what Beca had told her before. _Jesse's dad is my mom's doctor_. She relaxed, but not much.

What the hell was happening here?

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: This chapter ties some loose threads together, but it does so using more angst than I'd initially intended for this story. Well, these things happen, I suppose…

Summary: Beca Mitchell plans to rule the wizarding music scene, but her stupid Muggle dad is insisting that she go to college. Well, at least Barden University has a halfway decent Defense Against the Dark Arts program. It also has the world's most annoying-but-compelling redhead, and Beca's not entirely sure how she feels about that.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Eight

"Chloe, I'm okay," Beca said for what felt like the fiftieth time in under twenty minutes. "I'm not going to pass out. I feel absolutely fine."

"We can take a break…"

She used her ladle to gesture emphatically, slinging half-brewed potion all over Chloe's floor. "Seriously," she growled. " _Stop_ , dude. I'm not an invalid. I just want to get this figured out so I can pass Potions and never have to brew one ever again, all right?"

The worry didn't disappear from Chloe's expression, but she stayed quiet at least.

" _Evanesco_ ," Beca mumbled, pointing at the floor and clearing up her mess. "Now, I'm supposed to add armadillo bile and the diced arrowroot here, yeah?"

"Jesus, don't!" Chloe cried, shooting forward to grab Beca's wrist.

She blinked. "But… the recipe _says_ …" She gestured at the next line in her potions text. "See? Right here!"

"You have to add them one at a time," Chloe explained. "Armadillo bile is reactive. If it combines with arrowroot in open air, you'll get an exothermic response."

"You do realize I'm _failing_ the class, right?" Beca asked sarcastically. "I don't know what you just said."

"Big boom!" she replied, throwing her arms up in the air. "Big boom and ouchie for Beca. Is that simple enough?"

So apparently a worried Chloe Beale was a _bitchy_ Chloe Beale. "Channeling our inner Aubrey, are we?" Beca muttered to herself.

"Don't criticize my friend," Chloe snapped.

She wasn't going to apologize, but she didn't especially want to pick a fight, either. And certainly not with one of the only people on the face of the planet that she genuinely…

And that was the thing, wasn't it? Like or love. She knew she liked Chloe. Liked her a _lot_. Liked her to the point that she knew being rejected would be devastating on a scale she couldn't put into words. But love? That was a bigger word than she wanted to think about right now.

She'd gone back and forth a dozen times since she'd told Jesse she thought she might be a lesbian two weeks ago. Personal identity crisis and everything. But she was pretty sure she was. The more she let herself think about it, the more it made sense.

And it wasn't like she'd ever been told being gay was _bad_ or anything; sex and romance had just always taken a backseat to things like her music and making sure everything was okay with her mother. Frankly, she hadn't met anyone worth falling in love with before.

There was that word again.

The timing sucked. After Regionals, everyone – Chloe included – was treating her like she was made of glass. And even though Jesse's dad had told her that her seizure ("Let's not pretend it was anything else, Beca," Dr. Swanson said gently) was probably stress-induced, the fact that he'd still warned her to be careful was no comfort at all.

A hand on her wrist startled her, and Beca realized that in her mental haze she'd stopped minding the potion. She looked up into Chloe's eyes. They were calm and bright, the anger from earlier dissipated like clouds above the blue sea.

"I'm sorry, Beca," Chloe told her, causing her to drop the ladle entirely. "I just… what happened at Regionals was so scary, and I can't help worrying about you. I didn't mean to fuss."

"Dr. Swanson said I was fine," she pointed out gently. "I would tell you if he'd said anything else. I promise, Chloe. It was just stress. First year of college, class going badly…" She gestured toward the cauldron on Chloe's table. "And we were in the middle of a national competition. Everything just… dropped on me all at once."

She hoped.

Chloe pulled her into a hug, and Beca pressed her nose into Chloe's shirt. "I'm sorry," she said again.

Like or love? At the moment, love was definitely winning.

* * *

"Is your lady-love staying for Spring Break, too?" Jesse asked playfully, lounging on the towel he'd brought on their outing specifically for sitting out in the sun like the fucking stereotypical college students Beca was terrified of turning into.

"Firstly," Beca retorted, sitting on the unadorned grass in protest (she was ignoring his 'quad snacks' too, because life was too short for that kind of shit) "fuck you, dude. And secondly, yes. She's got some big Potions experiment she and her advisor are working on, apparently."

He waggled his eyebrows in an obscene gesture. "I'm sensing some serious bonding opportunities in your near future, Sparks."

"I will kill you and make it look like an accident," she threatened.

The sparkle in his eyes did not abate. "And yet my point still stands."

With a deep, put-upon sigh, Beca relented. "She'll be busy during the day, and Luke asked me to work nights at the station, so…"

"Ooh," he said with a wince. "That sucks, Becs. Will you get to see her at all?"

She shrugged.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," he said thoughtfully.

Beca stared at him. That was like saying that failing to get to breathe oxygen wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I mean," he continued hastily, taking in her incredulous expression, "my dad said it's really important for you to get your rest and take it easy for the rest of the semester. You've talked to him, right?"

"He calls every day," she said. "But, Jess, I'm really, seriously okay. I haven't had so much as a twinge since Regionals."

"Is it…?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't think so. But guess what I'll get to spend a week of my summer doing…" Her expression was wry, but there was a tremor in her voice.

Jesse's hand covered her own. "Even if it is, Beca, it'll be all right. I promise."

He didn't really get to make that promise, but Beca was too freaked out about the whole thing to call him on it. Instead, she let him hold her hand for a few moments before pulling away and lying back on the grass. She closed her eyes, focusing on the warmth of the sun, the sounds of people on the other side of the quad doing whatever fun things they thought they needed to be doing on the first Friday of Spring Break.

Suddenly, the warmth lessened as someone came to stand over her, blocking the sun. "I was enjoying that," she said without opening her eyes.

"You aren't answering your phone," Chloe's voice said accusingly. "I've sent, like, ten texts."

"Battery died," Beca replied, eyes still shut. "And you are seriously killing my vibe here. I'm working on my Zen."

The foot that nudged her side was decidedly unsympathetic. "I'm leaving in twenty minutes to drive Aubrey to the airport and I wondered if you wanted to go with."

Driving fifty miles in Atlanta stop-and-go traffic with Aubrey? What the hell made Chloe think that was something Beca was the slightest bit interested in? "Pass," she said, finally opening her eyes to give Chloe her best smirk.

"Come on," Chloe begged, "I don't want to drive back alone, and I'll even buy you dinner."

"La Parrilla," Beca said, sitting up slightly. "The good one, near the ice cream place you like. _And_ you don't argue about me having a daiquiri." Both Jesse and Chloe glared at her. " _One_ ," she clarified. "Your dad said to take it easy. He didn't say I had to give up fun for the rest of my life."

After a beat, Chloe offered her a hand to pull her to her feet. "Deal," she replied. "But we're getting ice cream, too."

She grinned. "Of course."

"I'm going to let Aubrey know where we are," Chloe said, pulling out her phone and starting to tap on the screen. "It's easier for her to meet us here on the quad – my car is in the opposite direction from her dorm. She'll be here in a couple of minutes."

"I just don't get why you like that Americanized fake-Mexican crap," Jesse told Beca. "If you drive three streets over, there are real, legitimate taquerias that are so good they'd make you cry in joy."

Shrugging, she started packing up her laptop. "There's something comforting about the sameness," she said. "I can order the same thing from four different restaurants and it doesn't change. Constancy is nice sometimes."

"She likes the cheese dip," Chloe said, looking up from her phone to wink at Beca. "Haven't you noticed that whenever we eat at one of those places, she practically drinks the stuff?"

"Not exactly authentic," Jesse conceded.

"You guys are assholes," Beca said, shoving her computer in her bag and stalking toward the big statue in the center of the quad. That was probably where Chloe told Aubrey to meet—

Someone must have hit her in a full-body tackle. That was the only explanation. Beca was walking, and then she was on the ground, dizzy and vaguely nauseous.

Twice in two weeks? She must have seriously pissed off some major deity or another.

She grunted and then there were warm hands on her head. "You got knocked over, Beca," Chloe said somewhere in the vicinity of her ear. "Your head hit the sidewalk pretty hard, but just stay calm."

"I'm so, so—"

"Benji?" she heard Chloe and Jesse ask simultaneously. "What the fuck, dude?" Jesse cried. "You can't just—"

"I have to go," Benji said, and he sounded frantic enough that Beca turned her head slightly to get a closer look.

Jesse was holding Benji by the collar of his shirt and looked equal parts pissed and curious. "Benji, what's the matter?"

Squirming in his grip, Benji very nearly broke free. "Bumper!" he cried.

"What…?" Beca mumbled, trying to sit up.

"Stay _still_ ," Chloe said firmly. "Your head is bleeding, and you might have a concussion."

She glared. "I'm _fine_ ," she said, feeling the whole world dip and spin as she sat up. "I feel normal. What's going on? Why is Benji talking about Bumper?"

"Bumper is the one who beat Benji up last fall," Chloe said in a quiet voice, continuing to smooth her hands over Beca's head. "Something about robes and their Ancient Runes class. I don't know. But you can't—"

"There you are, you suicidal little fuck!" came a voice that was only vaguely familiar to Beca. She swiped at her forehead, feeling stinging pain. Her hand came away bloody and Chloe made a weird little noise.

Although she wasn't sure if it was at the blood or at the spectacle that was Bumper Allen. Clearly, he'd been hit with some weird _Engorgio_ charm, and the left half of his face was comically swollen and misshapen. His left earlobe dragged against his shoulder, and a steady stream of drool ran down the sagging corner of his mouth, the oversized lip drooping toward his chin.

Jesse had long since released him, but Benji just stood there, cringing and looking so guilty that Beca didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Um, Bumper…" Chloe tried, pushing herself to her feet.

He pointed his wand at her. "Stay out of this, Bella bitch. This is between me and my buddy Benji here. Now…" The wand swiveled to point at Benji. "Say you're sorry, hand over the paper, and I'll put you in the hospital instead of the fucking _morgue_. Deal?" The cynical smile would have been more chilling had it not looked like it was slowly sliding off Bumper's swollen face.

"N-no," Benji stammered in a voice gone falsetto with obvious fear. "I won't cheat for you. I wrote that paper, and—"

Bumper cast the _Impedimenta_ jinx, but he added in a strange wand-flick that Beca hadn't seen used this way before, and the jinx struck Benji like a punch. Staggering, Benji fell to his knees.

All three of them – Jesse, Chloe, and even Beca tried to scramble to a standing position – moved toward Bumper, but before any of them could get there, a hand on Bumper's shoulder spun him around.

"You're a bully, a cheater, and not even your own mother probably likes you," Aubrey said coldly before slamming her knee into Bumper's crotch.

With a squeaking noise, he crumpled to the ground. Aubrey delivered another vicious kick to his gut. "And _that's_ for everything else," she spat.

There was a long pause, during which Chloe helped Beca to her feet and Jesse got Benji up, too. "Um…" Benji said inelegantly. "Thanks?"

"Bumper's a dirtball," Aubrey said with a dismissive wave, "I'd kick his ass for free." She stepped over his whimpering body, studying his face with clear satisfaction. "Who did that to his face?"

"I did," Benji whispered.

"It's an improvement," she said, picking up a suitcase that Beca hadn't noticed in all of the chaos earlier. "Your head is bleeding," she told Beca. "Did you have another magical freakout earlier?"

For Aubrey, that sounded almost _concerned_.

Still surprised at the turn of events, Beca shook her head slowly, wincing as the world did another crazy dizzy turn again. "I got knocked over," she said, deciding through sheer force of will not to puke, "it's fine. I'll take a nap in the car."

Eyes widening, Aubrey shot Chloe an accusing look. "You didn't say Beca was tagging along."

Chloe shrugged. "You didn't ask. We need to get going, though. Jesse, Benji, can you take care of Bumper?"

"If by 'take care of,' you mean walk away to leave him exactly where he is, sure," Jesse said. "I'll text Donald. He can deal with it. I'm going to buy my man Benji here a beer and we're going to drink a toast in honor of our gorgeous savior." He tipped an incredibly unimpressed Aubrey a wink.

"Let's go," she told Beca and Chloe, stalking off with her nose in the air.

As they walked away, Beca could _swear_ she heard Jesse tell Benji, "That was so hot. I am _totally_ gonna have her aca-babies."

Chloe's raised eyebrows told her she heard it too, and the very tips of Aubrey's ears were bright red.

"Hey, Aubrey?" Beca asked, voice rich with suppressed humor.

"Don't!" she snapped.

* * *

After a sadly daiquiri-free Friday night ("You have a _head_ injury, Beca…" Chloe had said, not even sounding apologetic about it), Beca didn't see Chloe for a couple of days. Which she had anticipated because of their widely disparate schedules. And it was okay, because they swapped periodic texts and even occasional phone calls.

But on Monday afternoon, Beca had attempted to drop by Chloe's lab (on the fourth floor of the building Beca had her own Potions class in, which was an incredibly awkward elevator ride with her professor), only to find it dark and locked. Ditto for Chloe's room and her advisor's office. Which _still_ might not have bothered her if it wasn't for the simple fact that it had been almost twenty-four hours since she'd talked to Chloe.

She wasn't having a full-on panic attack, but it was close.

No one had seen her. The only other Bella that hadn't left for Spring Break was Fat Amy, and she was nowhere to be found herself. Her Instagram account was full of pictures of a swimming pool full of muscular guys, though, so Beca wasn't worried about her. Only irritated that a potential Chloe-hunting partner was busy.

Which left exactly one person to help her. And he was the least helpful human being she'd ever met.

"Beca?" Benji asked, opening his door with a wide-yet-curious smile. "What brings you to visit?"

"Chloe's gone missing," she said, not willing to mess around with small talk. "You're going to help me find her."

His eyes widened. "Me?" he echoed. "But I can't—"

"Dude," she interrupted, pointing at the large bruise on her temple. "You _owe_ me."

Sighing, he picked up his wand and grabbed a jacket. "All right, but I don't know how much help I can be."

* * *

Chloe was drifting in a world free of complications, including pain or worry.

Whatever drug that Muggle doctor had given her after they hooked up her IV, she dearly hoped they had more, because it was _awesome_.

In between naps, all she cared to do was listen to the oddly soothing beeping machine that kept track of her heart rate and breathing. The evenness of the sound told her that she was still alive and nothing was really wrong.

Not at all.

She had no idea how long she'd been here in this hospital bed, but she dimly recalled visits from the Muggle doctor, a couple of mediwizards, and her very worried advisor. "Let me at least call your parents, dear," he'd said, agitatedly stroking his beard the same way he did whenever she botched a potion.

Chloe had just shaken her head. What could her parents do? Knowing she was in the hospital would only worry them; they couldn't even visit her here in the wizarding wing.

This wasn't supposed to happen. She and Professor Davy had been working on a solution to her throat problem for many months, and they finally had a potion at the testable stage. The first two tests were unsuccessful, but the third…

Well, now Chloe knew she was fatally allergic to ashwinder scales. Not a common ingredient – she'd never been exposed to it before. But her advisor said that the instant she swallowed, her throat immediately swelled shut.

Tracheotomy scars weren't _that_ unattractive, right?

Whatever spell the healers had performed to resuscitate her had also paralyzed her vocal cords. They weren't sure how the potion she'd ingested was affecting their healing protocols, but apparently all they could do was wait it out, treating symptoms as they arose.

Frankly, Chloe was too drugged to care. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and lose herself in thoughts of sweet-smelling dark hair and deep blue eyes.

Chloe dreamed.

* * *

The next time she opened her eyes, she saw Beca sitting in the chair beside her bed. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted back at what looked like an uncomfortable angle. As Chloe watched, Beca's mouth fell open and she started to snore just the tiniest bit.

She smiled at the sight, content to watch her for a few moments.

Wait.

How did Beca know where she was?

Chloe opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Damn.

Fumbling at the controls on her hospital bed, Chloe managed to flip on the television in the corner of the room and turn the volume up _loud_. With a start, Beca jerked upright in the chair, making a face and putting a hand to the back of her neck. She turned the TV off.

"Um… hi," Beca said awkwardly, blinking sleep out of her eyes. "You're awake."

Chloe nodded.

"You stopped texting me," she said, correctly reading the question in Chloe's eyes. "We were talking, and then we weren't. When I went looking for you, I couldn't find you."

She picked at a stray thread on the blanket, not liking the anxiety in Beca's voice.

"You never told me Benji is in your Advanced Potions class," Beca chided, causing Chloe to look back over at her. "He knew how to contact your advisor, and he told us you were here. Benji Confunded a nurse into putting me on the family list, so I've been here for a while. It's, like, three AM. Healers have been coming in and out, but you were kind of dead to the world for a while, Chloe."

Her answering smile was nervous, and she could feel her hands tremble ever-so-slightly.

"I'm assuming this has something to do with your magical vocal nodes," Beca continued, voice sharpening with anger. "Why didn't you _tell_ me what was happening, Chloe?"

The hurt in her eyes was more than Chloe could bear. _This wasn't supposed to happen_ , she opened her mouth to say. Nothing came out, and she threw the television remote across the room in frustration.

"Chloe, I…" Beca started, looking confused.

 _Oh, shit_! This was ten shades of horrible; if she couldn't _explain_ , then Beca might…

Frantically, she tapped on her tray to get Beca's attention and then mimed writing in the air with her right hand. She gestured at Beca's bag and then back to the air writing.

Beca's eyes widened – she got it. "Hang on…" she mumbled, digging around in her backpack. "I might have… aha!"

The fact that she had a blank notebook in her bag in the middle of the semester said a lot about Beca's study habits, and none of it good. But Chloe didn't care. She quickly uncapped the pen Beca handed her with the notebook and started scribbling.

 _It was an accident_ , she wrote. _Had allergic reaction to potion ingredient, potion itself maybe successful. More tests. Didn't mean to end up in hospital._

Beca read what she wrote and then shook her head. "You could have died, Chloe." She gestured to the stitches in her throat. "That looks really awful."

 _Way to build a girl's self-confidence_ , she wrote, giving Beca a wry look.

Rolling her eyes, she put a hand on Chloe's leg. "That's not what I meant, and you know it." Her gaze turned solemn. "I was really, really worried, okay? I can't… nothing can happen to you, Chloe. Maybe it wasn't that bad this time, but what happens the next time you decide to play potions guinea pig? Do all potions geniuses do stupid shit like this? Fuck…"

 _I had to at least try to fix my voice, Beca_ , Chloe wrote. _You have to understand that. And it wasn't reckless. Prof. Davy was there, and he got me to the healers in time. It's OK. I'm OK._

"But you're not…" she said. "You're…"

Beca's voice _broke_ and Chloe realized just how close to tears she was. Clearly, there was something going on in Beca's mind that she had no insight into.

 _What's wrong_? she wrote, underlining it twice for good measure.

Laughing, Beca swiped at her eyes. "I don't…" She breathed out a deep sigh. "Fuck it. I'm tired of keeping secrets. You really want to know what's been going on?"

Chloe nodded and tapped the paper.

"My mom has Dawkins syndrome," she said.

With a gasp, Chloe dropped the pen.

 _Dawkins_?

She'd learned about that in one of her first aid classes. It was worse than a death sentence for wizards. A wizard's magic basically turned parasitic, consuming the body's vitality and awareness. Random bursts of magic, hallucinations, and dementia were the _good_ symptoms.

And it put Beca's magical seizure in a different light entirely.

She looked at Beca with fresh eyes, wanting nothing more than to wrap her up in her arms and never let her go, to keep her safe from anything bad ever happening to her again.

But Beca's defensive posture was enough to keep her leaning against her pillow, the plastic tray between them. "I was five when her symptoms got really bad," she said tersely. "My dad couldn't handle it. He left. I stayed with my grandparents and Mom went to live at the, um, hospital sounds better than loony bin, right?"

Her smile was weak and Chloe didn't return it.

"My grandmother died when I was nine, and my grandfather… wasn't the most stable caregiver without her," Beca said delicately, lowering her gaze to stare at her lap. "I mostly stayed with the Swansons until Jesse and I were old enough to go to Black Hills for school."

She had no idea what to write. What _could_ she write? What would she say if she had her voice?

"Ever since I can remember, I've been terrified that I'd get it, too," Beca confessed, and Chloe couldn't resist grabbing her hand and giving it a comforting squeeze at this admission. "Dr. Swanson said he really thinks my seizure was just due to stress, but I can't stop thinking about it. What if… I don't think I could handle it. I don't know…"

She drew a heart on the page.

"But that's why you can't do anything stupid, Chloe," she said, tone gaining an urgency that Chloe found surprising. "I can't stand to lose anybody else that I care about. I don't care if you lose your voice and never speak again. You're so much more than just your voice, Chloe."

Startled, Chloe put her free hand to her cheek, realizing that at some point, she'd started crying.

"And maybe I didn't want to say it this way, but I guess I'm too far in _not_ to," Beca said, more to herself than not. "I've been so confused about this, and I've been scared to say it out loud, but—"

She held her breath. What was Beca saying?

"I think I'm in love with you, Chloe," Beca whispered.

Chloe's heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest. She could hear the monitor going crazy and wondered why the entire medical staff of Northside Hospital wasn't breaking her door down in a panic.

For a moment, she felt just as paralyzed as her poor vocal cords.

In that moment, Beca eased her hand out of Chloe's grip. "It's okay," she muttered. "You don't… I didn't expect…"

Lunging forward (and, she would notice later, yanking the IV out of her arm in the process), Chloe grabbed Beca's arm, pulling her back down on the bed so she could properly look into her eyes. Chloe offered her a smile as bright as the sun.

Slowly, gently, Beca's hand came up to trace a drying tear-track on Chloe's cheek. "I—" she said softly.

But even if Chloe'd had her voice, she wouldn't have used it. Instead, she pressed her lips against Beca's in a kiss so sweet it made her want to start crying all over again.

Beca's hand slid to her shoulder, and Chloe could feel it shaking. She broke their kiss just long enough to press another one to Beca's nose.

Their second kiss was less sweet. Beca's mouth opened under hers, and the instant she felt Beca's tongue touch her bottom lip, she almost—

There was a loud pop and the room suddenly went dark. Dimly, Chloe could hear a couple of panicked voices out in the hallway, but mostly she heard Beca's wry chuckle in her ear.

"I think you just blew the lights out, Chloe," she said, kissing the patch of skin just below Chloe's earlobe.

A bang this time, and Chloe knew even without being able to see it that she'd likely just taken the television out of commission as well.

Beca laughed again and Chloe felt the blush all the way down to her toes. "I'm thinking you feel the same way about me, huh?"

The room was dim, but there was enough light from the emergency generators for Chloe to scrabble for the notebook.

 _Yes, you dork_!

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: None here, I don't think.

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Nine

Everyone knew that Beca wasn't big on touching. It wasn't, like, a big deal or anything; there was just this big 'Do Not Invade' bubble that Beca sort of… exuded. And people largely obeyed. Every now and again, Jesse would decide that she needed to be tickled until she either punched or cursed him, but clearly there was something wrong in that boy's head anyway.

So most people would have been surprised to see her stretched out in Chloe's bed, head tucked under Chloe's chin and running her fingers through long, red hair. Chloe's arm was tucked around her back, her hand occasionally tracing a ticklish path up Beca's spine.

It was warm, it was comforting, and it was so out of character for Beca that ninety-nine out of a hundred people that had met her before would have pitched a convincing argument that she'd been hexed.

"I have to go to the airport in a couple of hours," Chloe said, and Beca felt the rumble of air rushing through her lungs as she talked, just glad that she had her voice back. It was husky and whisky-edged, but it was just as beautiful as it had always been. "Aubrey's plane gets into Atlanta at five."

Classes started again tomorrow, and students were beginning to trickle back onto campus. The suspended reality that Beca and Chloe had existed in since Chloe's discharge from the hospital on Wednesday was broken.

"I can drive," Beca offered quietly, knowing that Chloe was still pretty drained from all the medications they'd given her earlier in the week.

Which was why, despite the intensity of the moment they'd shared in the hospital, and despite the fact that they'd barely been out of each other's sight for the last few days, they'd spent the majority of that time alternating between naps and watching horrible television shows that Beca hadn't seen before and Chloe swore up and down were required viewing.

Chloe made a soft disbelieving noise. "I want to actually _get_ to the airport," she said. "Not end up a smear on a 285 guardrail."

"Hey," she protested lazily. "I can drive okay."

"Maybe by wizarding standards," Chloe said, hand sliding down to Beca's hip to give it a playful pinch. "I'm driving."

Placing her hands on either side of Chloe's shoulders, Beca pushed herself up so that she was basically straddling Chloe. "As long as I get to pick the music," she said, pressing a kiss to Chloe's collarbone.

"Until Aubrey gets in the car," Chloe replied, sounding slightly strangled.

Beca sat up and sighed. "I didn't know I hated hipster pop until I met Aubrey. Does she listen to _anything_ else?"

"Vampire Weekend isn't too bad," she said, leaning up to nip at Beca's lips in gentle kiss. "And at least she likes Bruno Mars, too. That takes the edge off the weirder stuff."

"For the first hour," she retorted. "Then, your brain kind of starts to melt. I mean, who actually owns Death Cab for Cutie b-sides?"

She smiled against Beca's neck. "Aubrey, obviously."

They were quiet for a few moments, exchanging kisses that grew in intensity and length. Beca smiled as she noticed the lights flickering, but Chloe found a particularly sensitive spot with her tongue, and then all Beca could do was moan.

No wonder people wrote love ballads and poetry about this feeling.

It was relatively easy to block out the rest of the world and focus on nothing but the taste, scent, and _feel_ of Chloe. She felt drunk on the last few days and right now, she felt dizzy with the knowledge that she didn't have to pine for Chloe Beale any more.

She had her.

Pulling away for a split second, Beca had to smirk at the results of her handiwork. Chloe's eyes sparkled and her cheeks were flushed. The scar on her throat – already mostly healed thanks to a daily application of dittany – was bright red and her chest heaved from their exertions.

"I love you," Chloe said softly, and Beca's heart practically exploded with joy all over again.

She was such a sap.

Chloe's hand reached out to trace the collar of Beca's shirt, dipping in the vee between her breasts, and Beca felt her eyes widen.

This was new.

And apparently, Chloe felt the newness of it herself. The hand withdrew and she gave Beca a surprisingly shy smile. "We _do_ have a couple of hours," she said, voice raspy with arousal.

Beca felt something in her lower belly uncoil at that thought.

"If you want…" But the way Chloe said it wasn't particularly seductive. It was hesitant.

So she stopped and really thought about it.

When Beca was fifteen years old, she'd lost her virginity to a guy named Seth Windmere. He was in her Transfiguration class and they'd decided that it would be easier to just go ahead and get it out of the way now before it became a big deal later on. Seth was relatively attractive, and he was careful enough that the experience wasn't traumatic or anything, but Beca had mostly been left unsatisfied and wondering why everyone thought sex was such a big damn deal.

Until she'd realized how very interested she was in kissing Chloe Beale several weeks ago. Thoughts of kissing led to thoughts of other things, and Beca had realized she didn't know much of anything about sex with women. Google would likely have been helpful had Beca been able to bring herself to type anything into the search box.

So now, here she was, knowing that she wanted _something_ but unable to put it into words.

"I've never…" she said softly, and when Chloe's eyes widened, she realized she'd misspoken. "Well, not with a girl."

Chloe blew out a breath. "I haven't, either," she confessed. "But if Rosie O'Donnell has figured it out, I'm thinking we can, too."

Making a face, Beca leaned backward. "Ew. Not a sexy visual, Chloe."

In a single motion, Chloe pulled off her shirt. "Better?" she asked coyly.

Beca should've had a witty reply. Something equal parts sarcastic and cool. It was practically ready in her brain. Too bad she had absolutely zero saliva in her mouth and her vocal cords seemed to be glued together.

She'd seen Chloe completely naked. It was a while ago, but some things just get burned into a person's mind, and that was one of them. But somehow, that moment didn't compare to this one.

It was clearly spontaneous, because a basic cotton bra, white with green stripes, didn't exactly scream 'sexy seduction lingerie,' but that made it better somehow. More real.

Beca leaned back down, to do what she wasn't entirely sure, and then they were kissing, and her hand was on Chloe's breast, and Chloe was making some odd but wonderful noise, and…

Turns out Chloe was right. They figured things out just fine.

* * *

And were thirty minutes late to the airport. Aubrey was standing on the curb, tapping her foot with impatience, and the instant she climbed into the backseat, she made a noise of disgust, looking back and forth between them, obviously picking up on the new vibe. "Just tell me the two of you didn't actually have sex in the _car_ ," she snapped.

Chloe blushed bright red, and Beca took her hand in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know," she retorted, rolling her eyes at Aubrey.

"Oh, _gross_ ," she said.

"Aubrey, I—" Chloe began.

"Like I _care_ who you date," Aubrey said, waving her hand. "I just wanted to make sure it was safe to sit in the backseat. Don't you remember that stupid White Castle movie?"

Chloe laughed, Beca had no idea what was going on, and somehow, Aubrey had found the exact right thing to say for everything to be okay.

* * *

 _Bellas emgcy 4 pm big news_ , Aubrey's text said.

It was 3:47 already, so there was no chance of going back to the dorm to meet up with Beca. Sighing and simultaneously realizing she was being overly dramatic, Chloe put a Stasis Spell on the potion she was working on and headed toward the rehearsal building.

She was only a couple of minutes late, but Aubrey glared at her anyway. "So, what's the big news?" she asked.

Apparently, it was big enough that Aubrey couldn't stay angry for long. She was practically bouncing up and down in place, vibrating with energy. "This morning, I got a call from John Smith, on the ICCA board," Aubrey told the entire group. "He told me that the Footnotes had a team member not enrolled in college, so they're disqualified. That means we're in the finals!"

Somehow, despite Beca's meltdown in the middle of their set, the Bellas had still managed to scrape third place based on the judges' score sheets prior to their… memory alteration. Chloe wasn't quite sure that it was all that ethical, but she wasn't about to bring it up now.

The Bellas as a group let out a collective squeal, and Aubrey waved a sheaf of sheet music at them. "I think we really have—"

She'd just noticed that Beca wasn't here. And while she wasn't necessarily the most prompt person in the world, she usually gave Chloe at least a head's up that she was running later than a few minutes. Well, she did after showing up thirty minutes late for a planned study session before Thanksgiving, when Chloe coldly informed her that if she didn't care enough about Chloe's time to at least let her know what was going on, she could find herself a new friend.

"Aubrey," Chloe interrupted slowly. "Where's Beca?"

She froze, and Chloe knew in that moment that Aubrey had done an unforgiveable thing. "Chloe, we can't take the risk," she said, narrowing her eyes and holding the sheet music protectively over her chest. "Not after what happened last time. We can make the routine work with nine girls instead of ten."

In the ensuing silence, she heard Fat Amy say something that sounded suspiciously like, " _This is gonna be awesome_ ," but she brushed it aside.

"Aubrey, I can't believe you would…" She started then stopped, because she absolutely _did_ believe Aubrey would. Not the Aubrey she'd grown up with, but Captain Aubrey, the girl who'd spent the last year slowly losing her mind, she would believe practically anything of. "Is this because of…?"

She huffed. "Oh, _please_! As if who you're fucking makes that much of an impact in my world. Hook up with Beca, call her your girlfriend, whatever the hell you want, Chloe, but she is _not_ going to screw up my chance at a national title again!"

And Chloe was done. "She's not the one that messed us up!" she shouted. "It's been you all along. Aubrey, you're sticking with a losing plan, and you won't give up any control. That's what's been destroying the Bellas. Not Beca. _You_!"

There was a lot of noise in the room. She wasn't sure whether it was because of what she'd said, or what Aubrey had said. All she knew was that she was absolutely over this shit.

Turning to leave, she stopped at the sound of Aubrey's voice ringing out. "Is that what you all think? That _I'm_ the loser here? I'll show _you_ control!"

She had no idea how Aubrey could basically puke on command like that, but it was horrible and infuriating, and just proved her point. With a loud cry, she threw herself at Aubrey.

It was on.

* * *

She didn't believe this.

Fat Amy had been the one to text her. _aubrey chloe crazy rehearsal hall NOW_. And she hadn't hesitated – just told Jesse she'd be back later and Apparated straight to the entrance, Obs squad be damned.

And now, all she could do was stand there, wand dangling from her right hand, watching the horror unfold in absolute amazement.

Chloe had clearly lost control, as Aubrey's hair was bright green. Both girls were screaming and flailing on the ground, Fat Amy on top of them, trying to pull them apart.

Cynthia Rose and Stacie were climbing over chairs, and for some reason Stacie was blowing her whistle. Both the Ashley-or-Jessicas hovered around them, and Beca couldn't tell whether they were trying to break it up or join in.

Dear God, was Lily lying in a puddle of _vomit_?

"What the fuck is going on?" she shouted, hoping that would break everything up.

She must have been louder than she thought she was capable of, because the entire room fell silent, gawking at her.

"Beca…" Stacie said after almost a minute had passed without anyone saying anything. "Why are you holding a magic wand?"

Shit.

* * *

Apparently, tickets for displaying magical items in front of Muggles cost three hundred bucks. Beca had no intention of needing this information ever again.

And Chloe had gotten her own improper magical use ticket for Aubrey's hair. Apparently, during their struggle, it had gone through several different neon colors. She'd quietly fixed it after accepting her ticket.

"All right, look," the Obs leader said, looking back and forth between Beca and Chloe with an expression that Beca couldn't quite read. "We tend to cut you newbies some slack with stuff, but this is the second time we've had a call on _you_ —" Pointing at Beca. "—in a month. You need to chill out. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," she mumbled.

"I get another call on you, and your status at a halfer university is going to be called into question. Got it?"

"Got it," Beca replied sullenly.

"Halfer?" Cynthia Rose asked from her position by the whiteboard, standing in between a very solemn-looking Aubrey and a relatively inscrutable Fat Amy.

"Wizards living as Muggles," Chloe replied. "On paper, Beca is a halfer because she grew up in a wizarding family and Barden is a Muggle university."

Cynthia Rose shook her head. "It still feels weird hearing people saying that word and _meaning_ it. Jeez."

A second Obs squad member came over and said something into the first guy's ear. "Okay, it looks like we're about done here," he said, clapping his hands together. "Turns out no one really noticed the hair, so you're lucky there. That means they're going to remember everything that happened before this one barged in. You've got about ten minutes before they wake up, though. Okay?"

They all nodded and the Obs Diapparated with a single, loud 'pop.'

"So what do we do now?" Aubrey asked quietly.

Chloe glared. "Now, you _apologize,_ Aubrey."

From what Beca saw, Chloe owed Aubrey as much of an apology as Aubrey did, but then again, _something_ had happened to cause the fight in the first place.

And the vomit. But she was _so_ not going to ask about that.

Aubrey's chin jutted out stubbornly. "My original point still stands, Chloe. Maybe I didn't say it very politely, but Beca freaked out onstage last time. What's to say it won't happen again?"

Oh. She'd wondered why everyone knew about this Bellas meeting but her.

"Next year, you and Chloe won't be around," Beca pointed out. "So how exactly is it your business what happens with me onstage?" She thought about it. "Wait, did you guys have this meeting to specifically decide to kick me out?"

Chloe's eyes were round and wounded, and she immediately grabbed Beca's hand and pulled her close. " _No_ ," she exclaimed, sounding shocked. "There was some sort of disqualification, and we're going to perform at Nationals at Lincoln Center."

She couldn't help smiling. "Really? That's… oh." Her smile faded. "That's what you mean, isn't it, Aubrey?"

With a nod, she started gathering up the pages of music that had been scattered around the room. "I don't think it's a good idea. That discussion led to… other things."

Beside her, Chloe bristled and for a moment, Beca was afraid another fight was going to break out. Hastily, she put a hand on Chloe's back, trying to soothe her. "What if I could guarantee that I'll be fine?" she asked. "Would you let me back in then?"

"How can you make a guarantee like that, Beca?" Aubrey asked flatly.

"I'll take a Calming Draught," she replied. "It will make me completely relaxed, and it'll dampen my magic so nothing can happen, even if I _feel_ freaked."

Chloe gave her an incredulous look. "Are you kidding? That stuff is tightly controlled. Even if you got your hands on some, the side effects are so awful that… Beca, you can't!"

What Chloe knew that Aubrey didn't was that Beca was basically offering to go twenty-four hours with suppressed magic. For a wizard, it was like volunteering to have their tongue cut out and then reattached. The gentlest symptoms were nausea, dizziness, and migraine.

"If that's how I can help the Bellas win, then that's what I'll do," Beca said firmly, knowing that even if performing didn't mean all that much to her, it meant so much to Chloe that she'd brought the Obs squad down on their heads for it. "Do we have a deal, Aubrey?"

"Wait!" Chloe said before Aubrey could respond. "If Beca agrees to this insane thing, Aubrey, then you have to _promise_ to do something about our setlist. Beca is an amazing DJ, and you have to listen to what she can do. That _has_ to be part of the deal."

Wow. That was…

Somehow, Beca fell in love with Chloe all over again in that moment.

Aubrey huffed. "All right. I'll _listen_ , but that's it."

* * *

Chloe had known Aubrey her entire life, so she knew better than most that Aubrey Posen rarely cried. Or admitted she'd done something wrong. Or apologized.

So the fact that she was currently hugging Beca, shedding tears all over her jacket and apologizing for being a bitch all year was more remarkable than any other Bella knew. Chloe couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit smug about it, though; she had known for so long that Beca was exactly what the Bellas needed to win ICCAs. The fact that Aubrey (and the rest of the girls) were getting to see how absolutely special and amazing Beca was, well…

Maybe Chloe had another Patronus memory.

She met Fat Amy's eye as they walked, and Amy offered her a large grin and a wink. _I knew this would happen_ , she mouthed.

 _Which part_? she wanted to reply.

Knowing Amy, probably all of it. Even down to the way she and Beca had sweetly fumbled through their first time together.

She couldn't help seeking out Beca's hand as they left the pool area, tingling with exhilaration and not a little bit of magic. "Want to work on potions tonight?" she asked as they walked, swinging their hands back and forth and delighting at the public demonstration of affection.

Beca sighed. "Not really."

Chloe's face fell, and Beca laughed at her obvious dismay.

"You dork!" she crowed. "Were you trying to ask me on a study date?"

"Maybe," she said with a mock-pout.

"I'm too wound up to pretend to focus on school," Beca said. "But I wouldn't say no to a pizza and… other stuff."

The color was high in her cheeks, and Chloe just felt too happy to be able to resist teasing a _little_. "I'm going to need you to be more specific, dearest. Do you mean…" Her voice dropped, low and seductive, " _sexually_?"

Beca gaped and it was absolutely adorable. She couldn't help leaning over to give her a soft kiss. And one kiss might as well have been two, which really needed to be three, and then…

"Hey, hey, check out the PDA!" a Bella (maybe Stacie?) cat-called. There were a few whistles and handclaps thrown in for good measure.

Chloe immediately tried to pull away, but Beca held her close for one last kiss. "Fuck that," she whispered, causing Chloe to giggle. She craned her neck past Chloe's shoulder to get a good look at everybody. "You're just jealous!" she called back good-naturedly.

"Insanely," Cynthia Rose returned without skipping a beat.

Concerned, Chloe turned to catch Aubrey's eye, but Aubrey was smiling and shaking her head at their antics. "You sure know how to pick 'em, Beale," she said with a sarcastic air.

She looped her arm through Beca's and resumed walking. "Yep," she replied proudly. "I sure do."

* * *

The Bellas always returned from rehearsal more or less together until they hit the big statue in the quad, where everybody scattered in different directions. Beca, Chloe, and Aubrey lingered for a few moments, swapping new setlist ideas. Chloe could already see the choreography in her head as Beca described to Aubrey how she was planning to layer a couple of songs. As the conversation petered out, though, she saw that Jesse was awkwardly hovering nearby, hands jammed in his pockets and clearly waiting for them to finish.

Beca gave him a questioning look, but he ignored her, walking over to Aubrey and handing her a single white rose. "Jesse?" Aubrey asked curiously, taking the rose and examining it carefully.

His lips quirked slightly at the mention of his name. "Aubrey," he began, and there were no theatrics in his voice. It was quiet, gentle, and Chloe found herself hoping like hell that for once, Aubrey actually heard him out. "I just wanted to ask if you'd let me take you out to dinner sometime. No strings attached. I really like you, and—"

"You don't like me," she interrupted, and Chloe's heart fell. There wasn't any anger in Aubrey's voice, just resignation. "You don't know me, Jesse. And there's no way I can measure up to the girl you've dreamed up in your head. I'm not… you deserve better than what I can give you."

"Isn't that my decision?" he asked, and Chloe saw tears shimmering in his eyes.

Aubrey shook her head. "I'm making it for you. See, Jesse? I'm really a bitch, and you don't want to go out with a bitch." Reaching up on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek, and before anyone could react, Aubrey was running, fast and far.

In wonder, Jesse's hand reached up to touch where her lips had been. "That…" he said. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Beca said. "Chloe?"

She turned over the last few minutes in her mind, thinking carefully before she spoke. "Am I wrong, or did Aubrey absolutely fail to shoot him down?"

"See, that's what I was thinking," Beca replied. "But I didn't want to get his hopes up like that."

" _He's_ standing right here, you know," Jesse interjected irritably. "And wondering what the hell you're talking about."

Sighing, Chloe took pity on the obviously clueless boy. "She turned you down, Jesse, but she didn't actually say that she didn't want to go out with you. If she didn't want to, she would have said so."

"Yeah, I don't know if you know this about Aubrey," Beca said with a tone so gratingly sarcastic that Chloe wanted to smack her. "But she's kind of blunt."

"You would know," Chloe said in her most cloyingly sweet voice. "Anyway. Do you get what we're saying?"

"I think so," Jesse said with a frown. "And now that Bumper's skipped town, I think I know exactly what to do about it."

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Whelp, here's the last chapter. Depending on how the mood strikes, there may be some add on one-shots – I'm intrigued by Beca's statement at the end of PP2 about the Bella house basement being haunted, for one. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed!

Rating: This story contains bad language, clear misuse of _Harry Potter_ references, and allusions to sexy funtimes between the ladies. Rate accordingly.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

* * *

I Put a Spell on You  
by: Hayseed

Chapter Ten

In a fair and just world, the Barden University administration would have realized how extremely important the ICCAs were and canceled final exams for the Bellas. Better yet, they would have also decided that the Treblemakers needed to take extra finals, to make sure their academic performance was sufficient.

But this was just the regular old world that Chloe had woken up in every morning for the last twenty-two years, so there was no escaping her Defense final.

On the one hand, half of it was written – finally! – so she was pretty confident there. But the second half was not going to go so well.

Occlumency.

It wasn't part of her high school curriculum, and Chloe was currently taking to it like a duck to integral calculus.

" _Legilimens_ ," Beca intoned.

Cue the memory of her mortifying fourth birthday party, where she wet her pants and Aubrey threw up on her birthday cake. All laid out in Technicolor for Beca's viewing pleasure.

Beca broke the connection and Chloe sighed. "This isn't working," Beca said unnecessarily.

"I don't want to block you," Chloe admitted. "I mean, not that I especially want you to view my most embarrassing life moments while I'm paralyzed to stop you, but you're probably the one person on Earth I would want to keep out."

"And it's not like you're particularly good at hiding your emotions anyway."

She smiled, but there was little humor in it. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I think we need to call in reinforcements." With a flourish, Beca pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen.

Not five minutes later, there was a knock at Chloe's door. "You rang?" Jesse asked cheerfully when she opened the door.

"How's your Legilimency?" Beca asked.

He stared at her. "Not as good as yours, I bet. Why?"

She pointed at Chloe, who offered Jesse a wan smile. "Part of our final exam tomorrow is Occlumency, and studying is proving… difficult."

They had some sort of silent exchange that Chloe found fascinating – Beca smiled at Jesse, who shook his head and then sighed when Beca wrinkled her nose. With obvious reluctance, Jesse pulled his wand out of his sleeve and aimed it at Chloe. "Think sexy thoughts," he said, giving her a smarmy grin. " _Legilimens_!"

 _No_ , Chloe immediately thought. _That's off-limits_.

For the first time, she felt a curl of magic as Jesse tried to slip into her mind, but Chloe firmed her mental barriers, built of anger and frustration. _No_!

She saw a memory from a few days ago, Beca laughing helplessly as Chloe struggled to unclasp Beca's bra.

 _No!_

There was a loud bang, and Chloe opened her eyes to see Jesse on the ground, wincing.

"That was a good one," Beca said. "You threw him into your dresser."

"Ow…" he moaned.

"Oh, my gosh," Chloe cried. "Jesse, I'm _so_ sorry!"

"You did a good job," he wheezed, prodding gingerly at his own ribs. "I was trying to piss you off, anyway. My own fault."

"I don't think that will be Professor Palmer's approach," Chloe said, helping him to his feet. "But now I know what a shield feels like, at least. I've never gotten one up before."

"You got one up that time," he replied ruefully. "In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say you and Beca were playing a nasty trick on a Treble rival, trying to injure him before the big day."

"Not necessary," Beca said with a confident sniff. "We're going to wipe the floor with you bozos without playing any tricks. Just good, clean a capella."

"Do you know how dorky you sound right now?" Jesse shot back.

In response, Beca flicked her wand, covering Jesse with a thin layer of pink glitter. "Takes one to know one, buster."

He twirled his fingers and the glitter disappeared. "Hey, I admit freely that I'm a total nerd. You're the one who has delusions."

Chloe folded her arms over her chest and glared back and forth between them. "Um, guys? Studying? Final exams? Future depending on a passing grade? Does _any_ of this ring a bell?"

"Right." Beca clapped her hands together. "I think you should try to Occlude Jesse again, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke."

A panicked look flickered across his face. "No!"

Boy, either she must have really hit him hard, or he was a total pain-baby. Whichever it was, she didn't think Jesse's Legilimency was up to a second attempt. Sighing, she shook her head. "I don't think it'll help. Thanks, though, Jesse."

She tried not to be insulted at the relieved expression he was wearing as he practically ran from her room.

Beca raised an eyebrow. "Do you think this will work this time?"

Chloe did her best to mentally center herself. "Nothing to but try it."

"Okay… _Legilimens_!"

Her shield wavered on the first hit, but it held. Now that she knew what to look for, it was a little easier. She didn't have to be mad at Beca specifically, but she allowed herself to be upset at the general idea of someone trying to invade her mind.

A memory. A boy's hand, sliding down past her navel, heading toward…

" _Legilimens_!"

Chloe steeled herself. If Beca wanted to know about past relationships, she could damn well _ask_ like anybody else.

Her shield held. And held. Uncountable minutes.

Finally, Beca's wand lowered and she sighed. "I think you have it," she said quietly.

"Really?" Chloe couldn't help squealing, grabbing Beca in a hug and leaning in for a kiss.

That went strangely unreturned.

Dropping her arms, Chloe tilted her head. "What's wrong, Beca?"

She made a frustrated noise. "Nothing. It's stupid."

"I've dated other people before, you know," she said gently, knowing exactly what was bothering Beca. "You have too, haven't you?"

She nodded, looking miserable. "Hearing that is one thing," she replied. "Seeing it…"

Chloe considered how upset she'd be if she had to watch Beca's memory of an encounter with anyone but her. "I can understand that. But you do realize that I've never had any relationship that even _approaches_ the way I feel about you, right?"

Beca's eyes were soft. "Really?"

Smiling, she pecked Beca's cheek, running a comforting hand down her arm for good measure. "We connected right away. I don't know that I believe in actual love at first sight, but we had _something_ at first sight."

"You were so _worried_ that first day," Beca said with a quiet snicker. "You'd just melted Aubrey's phone, and she was being such a bitch. Even then, it made me furious to see her treat you that way."

"And you were trying to hard not to care," Chloe pointed out. "It was kind of… sweet."

"Yeah?" Beca wrapped her arm around Chloe's waist, pulling her close.

"Yeah," she sighed.

Absolutely zero studying got done the rest of the night.

* * *

 _Beca_ , she heard Chloe's voice sternly reprimand, _you_ can't _think of a potion as a recipe. It's a specific chemical reaction. The reason you don't get Potions class is because you don't bother to consider the ingredient interactions. As long as you know your ingredients, recipes don't matter._

Which was awesome if you were a Potions genius. But if you were Beca, standing in front of the cauldron containing the potion she needed to brew _perfectly_ for her final exam, Chloe's instructions weren't as helpful as she clearly thought they'd been.

Especially because she kept hearing the ICCA mash-up droning in the back of her head. Her feet longed to break into the choreography, because there was no such thing as enough practice where the Bellas were concerned.

Aubrey wanted to win so badly. And even though she didn't say it, Beca could read in Chloe's eyes that she wanted to win just as badly.

Which is why despite trying her hardest over the last year to remain completely uninvested in stupid a capella competitions, Beca wanted to win too. To the point that she'd offered to magically cripple herself so that Aubrey would trust her to participate.

But she _needed_ to get through this potion first. The ICCAs didn't mean a damn thing if she failed Potions and flunked out of the Defense program.

Her base was fine, simmering and pearlescent white, just like the instructions indicated.

(She had some dim notion that part of her grade was to identify the potion as well as brew it, but the recipe wasn't one she recognized and she hoped fervently that a correct brew with an incorrect label would still pass.)

Next came the lacewing flies. Gravely, Beca stirred them in. Seven stirs clockwise, seven stirs counterclockwise.

 _Stirring motion is important for ingredient distribution, Beca_. But by that point in the study session, Beca was no longer paying any attention to potions and was far more focused on how to get Chloe in bed. Not her best effort that day.

Blackadder paste. Now this one, she knew she had to add in small increments – an explosion before Christmas break had taught her _that_ handy lesson. Two counterclockwise stirs, simmer for five minutes.

While she counted time in her head, she started slicing the ginger she'd need for the next stage. Sliced ginger, mashed dung beetles, and a pickled toad's eye.

 _Dung beetles will turn a potion red, unless you've added daisy roots. Then it will turn orange. That's, of course, assuming you don't blow anything up, Beca_. Chloe was cute when she tried to be sarcastic.

Five minutes dutifully timed, and the first slice of ginger dropped into the cauldron. It started to bubble ominously.

Shit!

 _Now, don't forget, Beca, that blackadder paste is highly acidic, and if you're going to add a passive ingredient like ginger or any flower derivative, you must, must, must add a basic substance to neutralize the reaction. That's why ginger always goes in simultaneously with an ingredient like ashwinder egg or_ dung beetle!

Chloe specifically said don't forget, and stupid effing Beca went and _forgot_!

The cauldron gave a loud burp, and she could feel the students around her stepping away in a practiced motion. She moaned.

 _Of course, you can always suppress a reaction, Beca. As long as you're not brewing a delicate potion like Polyjuice or Calming Draught, any reaction can be stopped and started using—_

"Black walnut!" she whispered, diving for her potions kit and scrabbling through jars.

She dumped the entire container of ground black walnut shells into her cauldron. There was a loud hissing sound, a release of green steam, but the bubbling stopped.

Beca blew out a sigh of relief but jumped as a voice spoke over her left shoulder. "Mitchell, what's going on here?" Professor Tyson asked sternly.

"Some ginger fell in my cauldron before I had the dung beetle prepared for addition," she said more-or-less honestly (so it fell because she'd been holding it over the cauldron at the time – the professor didn't need to know every teeny tiny detail). "I suppressed the reaction with black walnut, Professor."

An eyebrow went up. "Unconventional, but good save, Mitchell. I trust you'll be able to salvage a result?"

Screw honesty. "Yes, ma'am," she lied smoothly.

* * *

The potion wasn't deep red like it was supposed to be. It wasn't congealing to a paste like the others around her. But she hadn't blown anything up, and she was ninety percent sure that the recipe was for a burn paste of some sort, although she had no idea which type. She poured her chunky orange result into a beaker that she'd labeled with her best guess and waited for the professor to check her work with no small degree of anxiety.

"Miss Mitchell…" Professor Tyson drawled as she approached. "Did we manage to… oh."

"Um," Beca managed in a strangled voice.

The professor picked the beaker up and gave it a hesitant swirl, looking astonished as she read the label – well, maybe Beca had gotten _something_ right, at least.

"This is…"

She tried to look hopeful.

Professor Tyson blew out a sigh. "You're on the Defense track, yes, Miss Mitchell?"

She nodded, wondering what the hell difference that made.

"Are you planning on entering the Aurory? Working in any sort of forensic field?"

"No, ma'am."

Tyson squinted. "Brewing any potions ever again?"

Beca shook her head again. "I want to work in the Muggle music industry," she mumbled.

"You are, Miss Mitchell, without a doubt, the least-naturally talented student I've ever encountered."

She bowed her head, accepting the rebuke. It was true, after all.

"But today you demonstrated some degree of knowledge by neutralizing a reaction that would have resulted in a dangerous explosion otherwise," the professor continued. "And even though your result is… less than proficient, you appear to have completed the brew as instructed, and you have some idea of what the process should have been."

When she dared to look up, she saw a deep scowl on Professor Tyson's face and dropped her head again.

"Despite serious reservations, Miss Mitchell, I will assign you a passing grade for this course."

She looked up, unable to help a wide smile from spreading across her face. "Really?"

"But!" Tyson held up a hand. "But I have some restrictions. You will not take another Potions course, and you will never attempt to brew a potion outside of a controlled laboratory setting. Frankly, Miss Mitchell, you are a danger in a potions classroom, and I'd rather pass you than face another year together."

If she hadn't been so desperate to pass and get the hell away from Potions class, she would've been offended. As it was, she simply nodded. "No problem, Professor."

The professor's smile was thin. "I didn't think it would be. Now, have a good summer, Miss Mitchell. And tell your girlfriend that her attempts to tutor you through this course were admirable if misguided."

Beca's mouth fell open.

Unbelievably, Tyson tipped her a wink. "Chloe Beale is the one who _discovered_ that black walnut powder acts as a neutralizer in single-replacement reactions, Miss Mitchell. Her paper on her results is being published later this year."

Oh, she was _so_ going to kiss Chloe until she couldn't breathe!

* * *

Who was hyperventilating? No, sir, not Chloe Beale. No one hyperventilating over here!

Beca's hip bumped playfully into her own. "Chill, dude. We're going to be great."

They still had almost half an hour before performing. They weren't even backstage yet; just in some cobbled-together green room that had the world's saddest snack tray and a couple of cans of soda on a card table.

Amy nibbled halfheartedly at a slice of pepperoni she'd snagged from the snack tray. "If it was going to be a disaster, I totally would be warning everyone. My spidey sense hasn't tingled once. And I got the two of you right, didn't I?"

Chloe blushed outright and Beca made a face. "Fucking prophecy," she grumbled so quietly that Chloe was pretty sure she was the only other person who heard it.

"Okay, ladies," Aubrey announced suddenly, clapping her hands together. "Game faces on?" She gave Beca an expectant look.

"Oh, yeah." Beca pulled a vial of pearly pink potion from her pocket and waved it in the air. "I'm on it."

Even though she'd brewed the Calming Draught herself, Chloe couldn't stand watching Beca drink it. After she'd uncapped the bottle and brought it halfway toward her lips, Chloe put a hand on her arm, stopping her. "Wait," she said, turning to Aubrey. "Aubrey, aren't you going to see reason on this? She's _fine_!"

Aubrey pursed her lips, and Chloe had an entire childhood of knowing that nothing good ever came from that expression.

"It's okay, Chloe," Beca reassured her. "I can handle it. And I did make a promise."

"But it's _not_ okay," Chloe said firmly. "It doesn't matter. This is about _trust_. If we're going to do this together, if we're going to be _Bellas_ together, then we need to trust each other. Aubrey, you need to trust Beca."

"How do you feel right now?" Aubrey asked, eyes still narrowed.

Beca shrugged. "I know the routine inside and out, I know that I'm going to have a sophomore year, and my emotional needs are satisfactorily met." Chloe couldn't help smirking a _little_ at that last. "I'm riding pretty high on life right now, actually."

"And you can absolutely _guarantee_ that you'll stay calm on stage?" she pressed.

Putting a hand over her heart, Beca schooled her face into an absolutely solemn expression. "May my vocal cords be ripped out by wolves if I'm not."

"Be nice," Chloe whispered, tugging at a lock of her hair.

"Bellas," a guy holding a clipboard called into the room, "you're up in ten. We need you to move backstage. The Treblemakers are in front of you."

With one final shrug, Beca raised the potion to her lips.

"No!" Aubrey called, and Chloe let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "No, Beca. I trust you."

Well, _finally_. Chloe snagged the bottle out of Beca's hand, marched over to the trash can, and emptied the whole thing out. She offered the other girls a happy smile. "Let's do this."

* * *

Chloe knew that Bumper had run out on the Trebles with only three weeks remaining until ICCAs. She further knew that out of sheer desperation, Jesse had drafted Benji into helping them with a routine.

What she did _not_ know was that Jesse had somehow convinced the other Treblemakers to turn their ICCA routine into a love poem crafted for one Aubrey Posen.

Jesse and Donald ping-ponged back and forth on Ben Folds's _You Don't Know Me_ (with Donald doing a surprisingly good falsetto on Regina Spektor's part, Chloe noted) and Bruno Mars's _Just the Way You Are_ (making Chloe wonder if Beca had told him about their mash-up experience at the pool) while Benji used his astonishingly pure tenor to weave B.o.B.'s _Magic_ through the whole thing. Even if the songs hadn't tipped her off, the fact that Jesse winked and blew a kiss at Aubrey at the end was a dead giveaway.

As the Trebles trotted off-stage, Aubrey was openly crying, and Chloe was pretty sure that win or lose the ICCAs, Jesse Swanson had probably just won his case with Aubrey.

Fat Amy handed Aubrey a tissue to dab at her eyes, and Beca waited for Aubrey's nod to signal that she was ready to go on before they went on stage.

As soon as Chloe hit her initial mark, all of the tension and pre-performance jitters she'd been carrying the entire day melted away. Beca blew her single note on the pitch pipe, and Chloe's stage smile was absolutely genuine.

It was time to change the world of a capella.

* * *

"As cool as that was," Beca pointed out as she took a sip of her celebration beer, "you do realize that had you won first place with that routine, Aubrey would never have spoken to you again."

Jesse grinned, clearly more intoxicated with love than alcohol. "Nah. I knew you'd sweep it, Sparks. If you guys got second place with the lamest routine in aca-history, I figured that once they actually motivated your ass, you'd set the place on fire." He blinked. "Metaphorically."

"Between you and me," Beca said, leaning forward, "I think Lily might be a pyromaniac. Like, for real. Don't tell anyone, though." She drained her cup and immediately started looking around for another. "What did Aubrey say after we got off-stage?"

"Oh, nothing," he said with a dismissive hand wave.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Nothing?"

Placing a hand to his chest, he rolled his eyes upward in a fake swoon. "It was truly magical. She ran off the stage, into my strong, manly arms. Our lips touched. And then they announced the winners, and…"

"Do you think she's ever going to let go of that thing?" Beca asked skeptically.

Ever since the Barden Bellas were announced the 2012 ICCA National Champions, Aubrey had stayed within arm's length of the trophy. Currently, it was sitting on a table at the front of the banquet room the hotel had kindly leant them for their impromptu celebration party, and Aubrey was sitting right beside it, holding its base and beaming.

"She'll have to eventually," he replied. "I don't think they'll let her walk with it at graduation."

Graduation. That was right. This weekend, Aubrey and Chloe were graduating.

And… leaving?

Beca dropped her empty cup. "Jesse, Aubrey and Chloe are _graduating_!" she cried.

Smirking, he tapped her nose. "You're just now figuring that out? Maybe you need to lay off the booze, Becs."

With a huff and an eyeroll, she abandoned him and went immediately in search of Chloe. She wasn't difficult to find, not having strayed too far from their trophy at any point in the evening herself.

As Beca approached, Chloe grinned brightly and tipped her cup in a toast. "Pazdravlyayu, lyutishka!" she cried, almost-but-not-quite stumbling as she threw her arms around Beca. "We're so aca-spectacular!"

"Chloe, you're _graduating_ on Saturday," Beca said frantically, not returning the hug. "What are we going to do? Are you _leaving_? We need to make plans! How did I not see this—"

Laughing, she cut Beca off with a brief kiss. "I'm not graduating," she announced. "I failed Russian literature."

Beca's eyes went wide. "But you speak, like, perfect Russian! How can you fail Russian lit?"

"It's for my wizarding degree," Chloe confessed. "Technically, I'm done with my Potions degree, but I've been accepted as Professor Davy's apprentice to begin my Potions mastery, and to stay enrolled at Barden, I have to fail a class. So even though I totes passed, my professor will enter a failing grade each year until I finish my mastery."

That sounded stupid enough to be a thing. Sometimes wizards went about things so ass-backward. "How long will that take?" Beca asked.

"Two years if I'm especially motivated, but I'm thinking more like three." She winked and Beca did some mental math. "After all, I can't let you run the Bellas into the ground, now can I?"

It was like a heavy weight she didn't know she'd been carrying was lifted from her shoulders. Smiling so widely it almost hurt, Beca leaned in and captured Chloe's lips in a searing kiss. Behind her, she heard Aubrey make some sort of snide remark, but then Chloe nibbled at Beca's bottom lip and the sounds of the party faded to white noise in Beca's ears.

The sound of every single light bulb in the chandelier above their heads exploding _did_ manage to get her attention, though.

Chloe blushed. "Oops," she said lightly.

"You're gonna get the Obs called on us again," Beca chided, but she was grabbing the scarf wrapped around Chloe's waist and pulling her closer even as she spoke.

"You're worth it," Chloe replied, kissing her until the room faded away again.

 **FINIS**

* * *

Translation note: Chloe tells Beca, "Congratulations, little buttercup!"


End file.
